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 am
Speaker 1: your host, ramses.
Speaker 2: Jaw, he is Rams' joh, I am q Ward. You
Speaker 2: are tuned into Civic Cypher, Yes you.
Speaker 1: Are, and we appreciate that because we are trying to
Speaker 1: do some good work at a time that is challenging
Speaker 1: for people who want to do good book. But today
Speaker 1: we feel fortified and we feel alike it is the
Speaker 1: best time to redouble our efforts because we are going
Speaker 1: to be talking with someone who has earned our respect,
Speaker 1: someone that has been in the media space with us before.
Speaker 1: We've been able to have conversations with him before, and
Speaker 1: we're happy to introduce him to you, our listener. He
Speaker 1: goes by the name of Yannick Gill. He's a human
Speaker 1: rights lawyer based in Washington, d C. He's worked in
Speaker 1: Congress with two progressive members of the House of Representatives.
Speaker 1: He is an accomplished human rights advocate defending marginalized people
Speaker 1: across the United States and abroad. And today we are
Speaker 1: going to be discussing Donald Trump's first one hundred days
Speaker 1: in office. So welcome to the show, Yanick.
Speaker 3: Glad to be here with you both.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, man, we appreciate it. Man, I know you're
Speaker 1: a busy guy and you're taking the time out to
Speaker 1: kind of help us make heads or tails of the
Speaker 1: goings on. The political goings on out there in DC
Speaker 1: really means.
Speaker 3: A lot to us.
Speaker 1: We're also going to be discussing, you know, the attacks
Speaker 1: on DEI, which is something that we cover quite a
Speaker 1: bit on this show. But you know, this is an
Speaker 1: ongoing conversation. We have a way Black History fact and
Speaker 1: Baba that I really want you to stick around for.
Speaker 1: I'm really excited about both of those if we can
Speaker 1: get to them, because I anticipate us having a really
Speaker 1: important conversation today with Yanick. But we have so much
Speaker 1: for you to stick around for, so please be sure
Speaker 1: to hang out and learn as we learn. But before
Speaker 1: we get to the learning, let's celebrate. As always. Now
Speaker 1: is the time for some Ebony excellence, shall we?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I think we shall.
Speaker 1: So today's Abny excellence. This comes from WSBTV two andre
Speaker 1: three thousand and big Boy. We're on the ballot for
Speaker 1: the very first time. The only real question is whether
Speaker 1: or not they would go into the Hall of Fame together.
Speaker 1: On Sunday Night Live on American Idol, it was announced
Speaker 1: that Atlanta's own hip hop legends, Outcast, will be headed
Speaker 1: to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.
Speaker 1: They will join seven other performers who will be inducted
Speaker 1: into the performer category. Bad Company, Chubby Checker, Joe Crocker,
Speaker 1: Cyndi Lauper, Soundgarden, and The White Stripes all will join
Speaker 1: Outcast and receiving their award November eighth and the Peacock
Speaker 1: Theater in Los Angeles. Andre three thousand and Big Boy
Speaker 1: aka Outcast teamed up way back in the early nineteen
Speaker 1: nineties when they were high school students in Atlanta. Did
Speaker 1: two release their first album in nineteen ninety four. The
Speaker 1: duo have won six Grammys for their work over the years,
Speaker 1: peaking with their highly acclaimed speaker Box Slash the Love
Speaker 1: Below album, which was released in two thousand three. Both
Speaker 1: Andre and Big Boy have produced a handful of solo
Speaker 1: albums since two thousand and seven, but they did team up,
Speaker 1: team back up and toured briefly in twenty fourteen. The
Speaker 1: two men have appeared in several films and TV shows
Speaker 1: over the years, and their legend only continues to grow.
Speaker 1: And I don't know if you have heard any of
Speaker 1: Q's and my other takes for folks that kind of
Speaker 1: grew up listening to us, you'll know that, at least
Speaker 1: I have said on many occasions then I've never had
Speaker 1: any pushback from Q that Outcast is the best hip
Speaker 1: hop group of all time. And we can have that conversation.
Speaker 1: We might have to have it another day, but a day,
Speaker 1: it might be another day. But yeah, that includes n
Speaker 1: w A you know I am from counting, but that
Speaker 1: it includes in w A Wu Tang, you know, ghetto boys,
Speaker 1: you know, you name it. Outcast the best group of
Speaker 1: all time. To see them get their just do and
Speaker 1: be inducted into the rock Hole rock and Roll Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame is so shout out to Outcast, all right,
Speaker 1: mister Yannick Gil do us a favor. So again, we
Speaker 1: have had conversations with you on the Black Information Network,
Speaker 1: and you always bring a sense of clarity to the
Speaker 1: massive amount of political stories, headlines goings on that you know,
Speaker 1: the lay person, ourselves included because we're not political strategists.
Speaker 1: We haven't worked with Congress folks. You know, we kind
Speaker 1: of cover the news, but for folks that aren't as
Speaker 1: familiar with your work like we are, talk a little
Speaker 1: bit about your background and sort of what qualifies you
Speaker 1: to help us make heads or tails of Trump's first
Speaker 1: one hundred days in office.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, and again, I'm really happy to be here with
Speaker 3: you all. I describe myself in a simple way. I'm
Speaker 3: a town of immigrants, I'm a Florida man, I'm a
Speaker 3: black man. But I'm also a lawyer. And I've also
Speaker 3: had the privilege of advising members of Congress on how
Speaker 3: to navigate different issues that impact everyday folks. And no
Speaker 3: matter what level of education you have, no matter what
Speaker 3: job title you have, some of those core principles that
Speaker 3: I began with is really how I analyze the law,
Speaker 3: how I navigate these issues, and how I approach this
Speaker 3: new challenge that we're all in, whether you want to
Speaker 3: or not. And in my new role as Senior counsel
Speaker 3: with Human Rights First, I'm able to do it all.
Speaker 3: Human Rights First is an amazing organization where we have
Speaker 3: a unique view of providing both litigation advocacy both here
Speaker 3: meaning the United States and abroad, and these first one
Speaker 3: hundred days, I've shown us that the strike of the pen,
Speaker 3: the change of a tariff, the impact of any of
Speaker 3: these laws don't stop with our borders, does stop with
Speaker 3: any race, gender, any orientation. It's impacting all of us.
Speaker 3: So above all these things, I say I'm an advocate
Speaker 3: because that's where all of us need to be right now.
Speaker 3: In twenty twenty five, you.
Speaker 2: Talked about the stroke of a pen, tariffs, the kind
Speaker 2: of muzzle velocity executive order, disruption of seemingly every marginalized community,
Speaker 2: not just like you said in our Borders, but across
Speaker 2: the world. The first hundred days man the executive orders
Speaker 2: and their impact on our communities. Specifically from your purview,
Speaker 2: what does that look like, what does that feel like?
Speaker 2: And should we feel as kind of helpless and hopeless
Speaker 2: as we do.
Speaker 3: So the feeling is valid. As a millennial, I get
Speaker 3: tired of hearing the word unprecedented, but in this case
Speaker 3: it's very very true. Donald Trump has signed an unprecedented
Speaker 3: and historic. Infamous is how our kids will probably learn
Speaker 3: about it in a few years. But one hundred and
Speaker 3: forty two executive orders in the first one hundred days,
Speaker 3: he has moved at a neck breaking pace, impacting every sector.
Speaker 3: So whether or not you're really into politics in one
Speaker 3: way or another, you felt it. This has been issues
Speaker 3: of immigration, asylum, human rights that I work on on
Speaker 3: a day to day basis. It's been issues tied to
Speaker 3: student loans, which many of us can relate to issues
Speaker 3: tied to the climate, policing and the like. But your
Speaker 3: question tied to how it's impacting us disproportionately, meaning black
Speaker 3: and brown communities, is key. Within his first day in office,
Speaker 3: President Donald Trump assigned several executive orders, and what it
Speaker 3: did is it placed us in a situation of KAO
Speaker 3: and fair that is still reverberating across the country. Namely,
Speaker 3: he tried to insinuate the immigration that is the foundation
Speaker 3: of our culture, the foundation of the United States, whether
Speaker 3: it be forced as it has been for the descendants
Speaker 3: of chattel slavery, or willing economic immigration, or most recently
Speaker 3: asylum seekers. He tried to paint this as an invasion
Speaker 3: and as you set executive orders to try and circumnavigate
Speaker 3: some of the barriers that exist, some of those checks
Speaker 3: and balances that we all learned about with the bill
Speaker 3: on Capitol Hill and is now pushing forward to attack
Speaker 3: our constitutional rights, namely basic fundamental human rights like the
Speaker 3: ability to protest, the ability to congregate. All of these
Speaker 3: things have been challenged by a plethora of again one
Speaker 3: hundred and forty two executive orders, many of which are
Speaker 3: actively being challenged in the courts as we speak. You see,
Speaker 3: the president trump playbook is something that we saw in
Speaker 3: Trump One, where he throws something flagrantly illegal at the
Speaker 3: wall to see if it sticks. Many groups like human
Speaker 3: rights first turn around and seue, and in most cases
Speaker 3: we were able to win and uphold some of our
Speaker 3: constitutional fundamental rights. But in the interim is where the
Speaker 3: pain comes to black and brown communities. For example, when
Speaker 3: we have situations where US citizens are now being questioned
Speaker 3: of their citizenship, are being placed into immigration proceedings. We know,
Speaker 3: just taking a step out of his technicalities, that some
Speaker 3: of these economics disparities that exist hit black and brown
Speaker 3: folks the worst. So while you may be listening to
Speaker 3: this and think, wow, that's crazy. If I got arrested,
Speaker 3: what would I do? You might have access to bail money,
Speaker 3: might have access to a cell phone, You may have
Speaker 3: some way to get out, But if you don't have
Speaker 3: that money, that liquid bread on hand. What happens to
Speaker 3: you that question is not just a legal fact pattern,
Speaker 3: but it's what people are experiencing now on a day
Speaker 3: to day basis under Trump's America because of this onslaught
Speaker 3: of executive orders that he's unleashed.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, one of the things that I have
Speaker 1: discovered because I was really interested in this last election
Speaker 1: and how it was the case that we as a
Speaker 1: country were able to re elect someone that we said
Speaker 1: no to, especially when compared to Kamala Harris, who we
Speaker 1: felt was We're not the only ones that felt that
Speaker 1: way objectively, was the most qualified, you know, candidate whoever
Speaker 1: ran for president in the history of the country. She
Speaker 1: had worked in all three branches of the government. She
Speaker 1: was just exceptionally qualified. Served as a vice president. Of course,
Speaker 1: how were we able to get back there? And I
Speaker 1: learned that, you know, as you mentioned, Donald Trump is
Speaker 1: kind of cutting through protocol, the constitution, you know, the rules.
Speaker 1: I learned that a huge amount of his voter base
Speaker 1: absolutely does not care that he breaks the rules, does
Speaker 1: not care that he has no fidelity to the constitution.
Speaker 1: That's what they want. They want him to be their
Speaker 1: guy and to protect their interests. And these are the
Speaker 1: people in Middle America, the reliably read states that feel
Speaker 1: overlooked and you know, and they're never going to give
Speaker 1: up on Donald Trump. It's just they feel afraid. They
Speaker 1: feel they feel disenfranchised, and they feel that and they've
Speaker 1: gotten to the point where they feel like they've been
Speaker 1: discriminated against. You know, we had a conversation recently Q
Speaker 1: and I about you know, white evangelicals and how they
Speaker 1: are reliably you know, Trump Trump's voter base, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. And when you think of Donald Trump
Speaker 1: and you think of evangelicals, it's not their morals that
Speaker 1: they're voting on, and you would think that rather it's
Speaker 1: what are they afraid of? What do they think is
Speaker 1: happening to them? And they feel like they as human
Speaker 1: beings and their faith is under attack. But I want
Speaker 1: to shift gears here a bit. You know, we going
Speaker 1: into this last election, a lot of people were discussing
Speaker 1: the potential of Project twenty twenty five. It's Trump's Project
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five. He's going to implement Project twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1: And of course Trump famously pushed back. I think I've
Speaker 1: never heard Project twenty twenty five. I've heard there's some
Speaker 1: good things, but we have Agenda forty seven. That's what
Speaker 1: we want to do for people that are why this
Speaker 1: playbook where for people that are seeing Donald Trump fire
Speaker 1: people from key government predition, positions that are typically nonpartisan
Speaker 1: and installing loyalists. That was kind of one of the
Speaker 1: big things from Project twenty twenty five to all the
Speaker 1: other things that really mirror the either the spirit or
Speaker 1: the actual language of Project twenty twenty five. How closely
Speaker 1: do you feel that the first hundred days of Donald
Speaker 1: Trump's administration reflect what the thrust of Project twenty twenty five.
Speaker 3: You know, it's funny that you say changing gears, because
Speaker 3: the keyword in what I heard was afraid, which was
Speaker 3: woven in to Project twenty twenty five. The foundation of
Speaker 3: the plan was to hit all components of our society
Speaker 3: from every angle so that it was truly impossible to
Speaker 3: respond in a succinct, meaningful, and most importantly strategic way.
Speaker 3: So when we're looking at things from Project twenty twenty five,
Speaker 3: what jumps out to me are some of the most
Speaker 3: scary things that was talked about. Let's think about birthright citizenship,
Speaker 3: the Fourteenth Amendment and shrine list that anyone born on
Speaker 3: this soil would have access to citizenship in this country.
Speaker 3: This is something that again has a history tied to us,
Speaker 3: tied to black people, tied to the indigenous folks of
Speaker 3: this land. And in twenty twenty five, ignoring our constitution,
Speaker 3: ignoring years of precedent that the Court has analyzed over centuries,
Speaker 3: he challenged this but for a lawsuit. But for a
Speaker 3: lawsuit from similarly situated human rights organizations, it would have
Speaker 3: changed that. Chaos is one of the many components brought
Speaker 3: up in Pretentick twenty twenty five, whether it be leaving
Speaker 3: the Paris Agreement, attacking the World Health Organization. Brother There
Speaker 3: isn't enough time to go through the thick destructive points
Speaker 3: within it. But let's be clear that is by design.
Speaker 3: They wanted to make it to where the women's orgs,
Speaker 3: women's rights organizations versus the climate justice folks versus the
Speaker 3: civil rights folks versus the human rights folks, and immigrant
Speaker 3: justice folks were so scattered, were so concerned with these
Speaker 3: egregious attacks against our fundamental rights, that we didn't have
Speaker 3: time to strategize and fight back in a strategic way,
Speaker 3: in the way that they had been plotting and planning
Speaker 3: for four years, ruminating after what was still an embarrassing loss,
Speaker 3: which is why it took come so long to acknowledge
Speaker 3: that he had loss. So the playbook is there, and
Speaker 3: while we've seen components of it within these first one
Speaker 3: hundred days, that is already throwing our country into a chaos.
Speaker 3: Don't be fooled, it's only beginning. We are less than
Speaker 3: halfway through the year in what is supposed to be
Speaker 3: supposed to be Because, as I'm sure you all heard,
Speaker 3: our current president has ironically discussed the third term it
Speaker 3: is just a scary time. Doesn't really articulate the complexities
Speaker 3: both legally, socially culturally that we are up against right now.
Speaker 2: You know, it is so refreshing to hear someone else
Speaker 2: say afraid and scared. We are not typically comfortable with
Speaker 2: those feelings, and a lot of times our brothers and
Speaker 2: our sisters don't want to acknowledge them. I think we
Speaker 2: saw that during COVID nineteen. Right the the reason I
Speaker 2: think our people were so prone to buying into conspiracy
Speaker 2: theories was it was just fear and instead of saying
Speaker 2: I'm afraid to get the vaccine because I don't understand.
Speaker 2: We say we're going to get computer chips implanted in
Speaker 2: us in the vaccine, and the vaccine causes a list
Speaker 2: of things that should have sounded ridiculous, but again, no
Speaker 2: one wanted to acknowledge fear, so we explained it away
Speaker 2: with some things that just normally wouldn't have made sense
Speaker 2: to us personally. I've been having to deal with friends
Speaker 2: and colleagues, I'll flatly say, gaslighting me for being so
Speaker 2: upset at what I'm witnessing. And we use the words
Speaker 2: black and brown. In my world, that is a very
Speaker 2: very literal thing. My children are black, African American and
Speaker 2: Mexican Hispanic Latin mixed in a border state, and that
Speaker 2: what we've seen happen with regards to immigration, with ice
Speaker 2: and raids and communication from the Department of Education or
Speaker 2: the school board or the GOP and the state that
Speaker 2: we live in where they are lockstep with the administration
Speaker 2: and the president. When you have to go get your
Speaker 2: first grader and your kindergartener from school because there might
Speaker 2: be an ice ray, trust me, that is an actual
Speaker 2: scary thing. So thank you for acknowledging that This is
Speaker 2: not just unprecedented, but in some cases terrifying watching someone
Speaker 2: completely ignore and disregard our constitution. One of the things
Speaker 2: that stood out to me that I was really caught
Speaker 2: off guard by was the private sector's preemptive bending of
Speaker 2: the need with regards to DEI. I knew that there
Speaker 2: were places that depended on federal funding that kind of
Speaker 2: didn't have a choice. They had to just fall in line.
Speaker 2: But watching these massively successful companies, in multi multi, multi
Speaker 2: billion dollar corporations preemptively kissed the ring and ben and
Speaker 2: knee was shocking for me. Maybe it shouldn't have been,
Speaker 2: but it was. How has that resonated in the position
Speaker 2: that you're in or from your purview.
Speaker 3: It has made collaboration that much more tricky within the
Speaker 3: nonprofit space. Just as a man, it's made shopping that
Speaker 3: much more difficult, sure way, and I have to consider
Speaker 3: as a pedestrian where I'm shopping, how I'm getting just
Speaker 3: basic goods. Because our power lives with our dollar, so
Speaker 3: let's be clear when it comes to companies protecting their
Speaker 3: bottom line. I am less shocked. And that may be
Speaker 3: the skeptic of me, It may be just an analysis
Speaker 3: of us history and the history of capitalism across the world.
Speaker 3: Where I have been grappling and still am grappling with
Speaker 3: just the impact is the attack on diversity, equity inclusion
Speaker 3: programs within our federal government, within our schools, because so
Speaker 3: many people that I know in love have been hurt
Speaker 3: by what has been a surgical attack on communities that
Speaker 3: don't reflect how the Trump administration wants America to look.
Speaker 3: These DEI programs have nothing, nothing to do with the
Speaker 3: way that is discussed in twenty twenty five. And it
Speaker 3: breaks my heart that when I hear the word DEI,
Speaker 3: I feel compelled to provide an explanatory comma to punctuate
Speaker 3: it with, oh, but this is what it means in
Speaker 3: this context, because the definition is within the name diversity, equity,
Speaker 3: and inclusion, but no different than woke, no different than
Speaker 3: equality or equity. The powers that be have attempted, Hey,
Speaker 3: you know what, I'll give flowers where they do. They
Speaker 3: have taken the words that we use to articulate justice, power, freedom,
Speaker 3: equality and rebranded it in a way that has folks
Speaker 3: confused about what's really going on. So when it comes
Speaker 3: to the way that DEI has been attacked, I am
Speaker 3: still grappling with it. And in this case, it's not
Speaker 3: just fear of what's to happen next, it's anger because
Speaker 3: it's surgical. You all can think again, I grew up
Speaker 3: in Florida. I'm in DC now, but not having been
Speaker 3: to y'all's border communities, I could take a while guess
Speaker 3: and say, you've seen a black postal worker. Why? Because
Speaker 3: black folks have disproportionally represented the federal workforce for decades,
Speaker 3: for decades, and by attacking diversity, equity inclusion in this
Speaker 3: new form and fashion, they're attacking black communities. They're making
Speaker 3: it to where you have less access to upward mobility
Speaker 3: than you would have without access to federal jobs, and
Speaker 3: while simultaneously attacking diversity acuity inclusion programs to get access
Speaker 3: to a higher education. Again, I give pause thinking about
Speaker 3: how it is that we're supposed to approach this because
Speaker 3: of such a complex on our human rights.
Speaker 1: You know something about you know what you're saying. We
Speaker 1: found this out recently, that federal jobs. And it was
Speaker 1: after the Civil rights movement when all the laws were
Speaker 1: passed and it kind of helped make the country more fair.
Speaker 1: But federal jobs, the federal workforce was the one place
Speaker 1: in the country where black folks could get jobs without
Speaker 1: the private sector discrimination. And so that allowed a lot
Speaker 1: of black people to access the middle class, a lot
Speaker 1: of brown people to access the middle class. And you know,
Speaker 1: to be fair, the middle classes is shrinking, of course,
Speaker 1: but you know, the legacy middle class, you know from
Speaker 1: you know, the we'll call it the mid sixties to today.
Speaker 1: You know, a lot of the black folks that were
Speaker 1: able to access that was through federal, federal programs and
Speaker 1: federal jobs.
Speaker 3: That is what I mean to say.
Speaker 1: So, yeah, these these attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion,
Speaker 1: because Q does like when we say the whole title,
Speaker 1: so that people understand that as concepts they are not wrong, bad,
Speaker 1: inconsistent with our human nature. But when you it's easier
Speaker 1: to politicize it by calling a DEI. But the attacks
Speaker 1: have have definitely been attacks that we felt, particularly so
Speaker 1: in marginalized communities. I have just kind of like maybe
Speaker 1: a minute or so here, maybe a minute and a half,
Speaker 1: but I'd like to get your thoughts on the destruction
Speaker 1: of us AID and the Department of Education and and
Speaker 1: and all those other sort of ancillary Well, I guess
Speaker 1: they're not ancillary things, but the additional elements that that
Speaker 1: we don't talk about as as often as we probably
Speaker 1: should on this show.
Speaker 3: And you know, with a minute, I'll keep it very direct,
Speaker 3: keep it very simple. It's very easy to other what's
Speaker 3: happening to our Latino brothers and sisters if you have
Speaker 3: interactive with them, maybe you're in a state where the
Speaker 3: diasporas and is present. Is very easy to look at
Speaker 3: all the international issues and say, what does that have
Speaker 3: to do with me and mins right here? But when
Speaker 3: it comes to USAID, when it comes to the Department
Speaker 3: of Education, it's forcing you to remember that what happens
Speaker 3: to our brothers and our sisters, both here and abroad,
Speaker 3: will ultimately impact US. USAID is one of the primary
Speaker 3: sources for vaccinations across the world in many parts of
Speaker 3: the world, and what we don't recognize is that by
Speaker 3: simply stripping away access to life saving vaccinations, it's not
Speaker 3: only impacting a country that you may not have heard
Speaker 3: of or don't have any interest in going to. It's
Speaker 3: impacting any and everyone that goes onto a plane there
Speaker 3: and here and ultimately ends up walking around. That's how
Speaker 3: globalized society works. That's how communical communicable diseases work, and
Speaker 3: it's not something that stops by you staying in your
Speaker 3: community in twenty twenty five. If I want it to
Speaker 3: be on the opposite side of the world tomorrow, I
Speaker 3: can book a flight, hop on a plane and go.
Speaker 3: And most of us rust assured that the standards around
Speaker 3: health care and interconnection, it's going to be comparable, it's
Speaker 3: going to be safe. And that has lots to do
Speaker 3: with diplomacy that USA has done. On the snap of finger.
Speaker 3: Trump has destroyed this. He has destroyed our our ability
Speaker 3: to gain ectual education, access to Ada regulated care for
Speaker 3: our children at schools. It's so much more than what
Speaker 3: happens on the day to day to our Latino brothers
Speaker 3: and sisters, because these issues definitely impact all of us