Speaker 1: Keep on riding with us as we continue to broadcast
Speaker 1: the balance and defend the discourse from the Hip Hop
Speaker 1: Weekly Studios. Welcome back to Civic Cipher. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Ramsay's Jah.
Speaker 2: He is Ramsay's Jah. I am q Ward. You are
Speaker 2: still or once again tuned into civic excitement.
Speaker 1: Either way, we appreciate you and we want you to
Speaker 1: keep on doing what you're doing. Because we got a
Speaker 1: special guest in the building. She goes by the name
Speaker 1: of Xenia Perez. She's an organizer and political consultant working
Speaker 1: in the fields of advocacy and electoral politics, and she
Speaker 1: has given us some game. If you don't like the
Speaker 1: world you live in, there are there is an infrastructure
Speaker 1: in place for you to change it. And she's letting
Speaker 1: us know how she's going about doing that, how she's
Speaker 1: been doing that for some years, and how you can
Speaker 1: follow in her footsteps. And so we're gonna continue the
Speaker 1: conversation with her, and we are also going to and
Speaker 1: this is what I teased at the beginning of the show.
Speaker 1: We're gonna h share uh a brand new babbab become
Speaker 1: a better ally. So without further ado, this video is
Speaker 1: from Cody Connor on Ig. You can follow him at
Speaker 1: b's say, Dad, that's be easy, Aydad, two to two.
Speaker 3: I don't know if you are attacking DEI because you
Speaker 3: convince yourself that racism and discrimination doesn't exist anymore. If
Speaker 3: you've just convinced yourself that it's okay. What I do
Speaker 3: know is that white supremacist groups still feel embolden enough
Speaker 3: to march openly in American streets. People are proudly proclaiming
Speaker 3: themselves racists and bigots on social media and even national television.
Speaker 3: And I know that it'll be those people that are
Speaker 3: cheering and applauding for you the loudest when you decide
Speaker 3: to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion in our schools. And
Speaker 3: the fact that doesn't give you pause, that it doesn't
Speaker 3: make you feel sick and slimy tells me everything I
Speaker 3: need to know about you. When I look at you,
Speaker 3: the six of you that will vote against this, I'm disgusted,
Speaker 3: but I'm also grateful. I'm grateful for all the experiences
Speaker 3: I had that kept me from being like you. You see,
Speaker 3: there's racist and bigots in my family. I heard the
Speaker 3: N word in derogatory jokes growing up. But when I
Speaker 3: found myself on my own before I'd even graduated high school,
Speaker 3: that family.
Speaker 1: Wasn't there to help me.
Speaker 3: My friend the Liana's family was there, wattermall and immigrants.
Speaker 3: It wasn't for them, I probably would have gotten a
Speaker 3: lot more trouble than I did. Did you know that
Speaker 3: immigrants are less likely to commit crimes in US citizens statistically?
Speaker 3: And then there was my friend Trey's mom taking care
Speaker 3: of all those kids all on our own. Still, somehow
Speaker 3: I always able to still find a prayer and a
Speaker 3: plate for me too.
Speaker 1: Just know that black mothers are more than three times as.
Speaker 3: Likely to be single moms and white mother's statistically. It
Speaker 3: was a queer kid that helped me learn how to
Speaker 3: navigate life on the streets. Did you know that LGBTQ
Speaker 3: kids are more than twice as likely than their peers
Speaker 3: to be homeless statistically? But because of those kids, when
Speaker 3: my child came out to me, I was able to
Speaker 3: be the father that they needed, despite all of the
Speaker 3: religious and doctor nation I'd been subjicted to. Did you
Speaker 3: know it's more likely your priest will be a predator
Speaker 3: then your kid will be trains statistically? Now I know
Speaker 3: you don't care about my stories or my statistics. Your
Speaker 3: fear and ignorance has got you so turned around rather
Speaker 3: than embracing the future, cleaning desperately to echoes of the past.
Speaker 2: But that future, it's.
Speaker 3: Still coming, and it doesn't look much like you statistically,
Speaker 3: shout out to the student speakers. You may be blind,
Speaker 3: but these kids aren't.
Speaker 1: They see you more than that.
Speaker 2: They see that you do not see them.
Speaker 3: So tonight, after you vote against their future and go
Speaker 3: home to bask in the approval of racists and bigots,
Speaker 3: don't mistake this for a day that we stood in
Speaker 3: your way and couldn't stop you. Now, today's the day
Speaker 3: you decided to stand away of these kids and their future.
Speaker 3: And someday, sooner than you think, they're going to run
Speaker 3: right over you and not even look back.
Speaker 1: Make good decisions, all right now? You know why I
Speaker 1: wanted you to stick around for that, because that was
Speaker 1: so powerful. The first time I heard that, I watched
Speaker 1: it probably like five times, but like it moved me,
Speaker 1: and I knew that I wanted to play that for you. Q.
Speaker 1: And you know again that segment we've gone over a
Speaker 1: little bit, but that segment is meant to highlight ally
Speaker 1: ship or to give you examples of becoming a better ally.
Speaker 1: And that was just you know, for those that don't
Speaker 1: get a chance to check out at social media again,
Speaker 1: it's be e z A y da D two two
Speaker 1: on Instagram. If you can't check out the video, just
Speaker 1: know that this is a white presenting male, maybe in
Speaker 1: his forties, and he's in front of what appears to
Speaker 1: be some sort of community council or school board or
Speaker 1: something like that. And you know, sharing those powerful words.
Speaker 1: Just because you're down doesn't mean you're out. And for
Speaker 1: people to step in, especially when it comes to diversity,
Speaker 1: equity and inclusion initiatives where it might not benefit them directly,
Speaker 1: and be such a powerful voice in that space. I
Speaker 1: have to salute you, so Cody Connor on Instagram.
Speaker 4: I salute you.
Speaker 1: Thank you for standing with the people. Man. That's very special. Okay,
Speaker 1: your political prima I love that. All right, Dania, talk
Speaker 1: to us about the major threats that you see. Two
Speaker 1: outs were democracy or maybe too our communities, you know,
Speaker 1: marginalized communities. Given this administration, What are some things that
Speaker 1: you think people should be concerned about.
Speaker 5: I think one thing. I have two things. The first
Speaker 5: thing is that fascism is no longer at our doorstep.
Speaker 5: It is here, and we voted it in. We have
Speaker 5: voted in a tyrant who is a racist, bigot. All
Speaker 5: the bad things, all the bad words that I cannot
Speaker 5: say on the radio, it is here. And the second
Speaker 5: thing is these attacks on DEI. You know, they started,
Speaker 5: you know, years ago, but right now DEI is this
Speaker 5: bad word. We're in this culture war moment and a
Speaker 5: lot of people think that DEI is just like this
Speaker 5: random policy that Costco and Target are kind of filling
Speaker 5: about with their shareholders, and you know that we don't
Speaker 5: have to care about that. But I'm here to tell
Speaker 5: you that DEI is diversity. It means that you want
Speaker 5: to have a lady doctor taking care of you know,
Speaker 5: your lady bits. You know. That's that's that's one example.
Speaker 5: There is equity that everybody gets a fighting chance, and
Speaker 5: that includes white people. People in the Midwest too, like
Speaker 5: they've suffered a lot, you know, like their jobs got
Speaker 5: shipped off overseas and and now we're fighting for jobs
Speaker 5: back and you know, manufacturing jobs that are done by robots.
Speaker 5: So that's the that's the e you know, the the
Speaker 5: equity part everybody should have, you know, that part a
Speaker 5: fair chance of you know, making living a good life
Speaker 5: and providing for their family. And then there's inclusion, and
Speaker 5: an inclusion we talk about everybody too, different religions, races,
Speaker 5: gender identities, you know, we're talking about everybody. We want
Speaker 5: everybody to have a seat at the table because that
Speaker 5: is what is right and that's what makes this country
Speaker 5: like beautiful and great. Like why why do you think
Speaker 5: people want to immigrate here? It's it's because of things
Speaker 5: like DEI that you know, have have propelled us forward,
Speaker 5: not as like our different affinity groups, but as a
Speaker 5: country as a whole. We have all prospered and benefited
Speaker 5: from things like DEI together. And so now they're making
Speaker 5: it this like big bad thing. This is the bad
Speaker 5: guy in the room, you know, besides immigrants, right and
Speaker 5: and and so you know, they they want to kind
Speaker 5: of get us into thinking they're grooming us, you know,
Speaker 5: kind of like a predator would. They're grooming us into
Speaker 5: thinking that DEI something we don't need, something that doesn't
Speaker 5: matter to us. You know, it's something that happens to
Speaker 5: someone else, but it's something that everyone benefits from. And
Speaker 5: you know what they're really doing is you know, getting
Speaker 5: you used to a tax on DEI because what they're
Speaker 5: really coming for are civil rights. And so I'll leave
Speaker 5: it at that. I don't want to be too doom
Speaker 5: and gloom, but you know that is their long game,
Speaker 5: and they're just trying to get us ready to just
Speaker 5: like accept it willingly.
Speaker 2: You know, the difficult thing about the show that we
Speaker 2: do is that the doom and gloom is unavoidable and
Speaker 2: the ironic hypocrisy of immigrants fighting against immigration. It's so
Speaker 2: blatantly wrong and should be so immediately resisted and they
Speaker 2: should be called out for it, except they're not. You know,
Speaker 2: you have a South African immigrant being probably the largest
Speaker 2: donor to the last campaign, and at least at the
Speaker 2: start of this presidency, one of the most vocal and
Speaker 2: out front leaders making decisions and you know, leading all
Speaker 2: these fronts that take as many things from the most
Speaker 2: vulnerable as possible. You know, we talked before about how
Speaker 2: so many of those executive orders were not even disguised
Speaker 2: as helping someone. They were all directly harming someone, all
Speaker 2: of them proudly as he signed them and held them
Speaker 2: up for photo ops like a petulant.
Speaker 5: Child, And is that how you make America great?
Speaker 2: And they think so apparently the Department of Education, universities
Speaker 2: both public and private, making free speech and protest a
Speaker 2: bad word, making dissent and disagreement, you know, almost illegal
Speaker 2: in the spaces that you work in. Because I'm sitting
Speaker 2: here appreciating the hope loptimism that you still have about
Speaker 2: the power that we have as a country and the
Speaker 2: things that we can still do to fight back. I
Speaker 2: sit back and wonder if before we're able to exercise
Speaker 2: those freedoms and those rights, they'll be taken. They'll be gone,
Speaker 2: they will no longer be a path forward for us
Speaker 2: to exercise the power that we have as a quote
Speaker 2: unquote free country and a free people in a democratic republic.
Speaker 2: How do you continue to wear the smile and the
Speaker 2: hopeful optimism that you do in the face of what
Speaker 2: we're seeing happen with this administration? Because I'm sitting over
Speaker 2: here like very proud of you and admiring you and
Speaker 2: jealous of you because so much of my hopeful flame
Speaker 2: has been extinguished.
Speaker 5: Well, I'm here to reignite it. That's the job of
Speaker 5: an organizer.
Speaker 1: How do I do this work?
Speaker 5: Well? I like a good challenge, and I like a
Speaker 5: good challenge, but also like it's a conversation about privilege, right,
Speaker 5: Like I was born in the United States just because
Speaker 5: of where I got lucky enough to be born in
Speaker 5: the US. That gives me so much privilege. I wasn't
Speaker 5: born rich. You know, we're working poor. But everything I have,
Speaker 5: I got here and people like me don't usually, you know,
Speaker 5: you don't expect them to be in the room doing
Speaker 5: this kind of work. It's but I got here because
Speaker 5: like I had access to great teachers. Like my teachers
Speaker 5: were Jewish, they taught me about the Holocaust. My neighbors
Speaker 5: were black, they taught me about the Civil rights. Like
Speaker 5: I had all these amazing people just pouring into me.
Speaker 5: And it is my job to pour into others and
Speaker 5: make sure that you know that hard life that I lived,
Speaker 5: that nobody else has to walk in those difficult footsteps,
Speaker 5: because we we deserve more, and we deserve to do
Speaker 5: right by our neighbors, our friends, our family, like our
Speaker 5: future generations. It's just the right thing to do. And
Speaker 5: also like I also don't have privilege that I'm I'm
Speaker 5: not a white person who thinks that I'm gonna be fine,
Speaker 5: Like I don't get to to give up because there's
Speaker 5: gonna be people who are suffering worse than I do
Speaker 5: than I will, and and and so that's how I
Speaker 5: keep going. But I will. You know, on the way here,
Speaker 5: the universe played this song and so I'm gonna, I'm gonna,
Speaker 5: you know, ask a question to your audience. And this
Speaker 5: is a hey, yeah lyric, let's go. And so it's
Speaker 5: just a wyo, wyo, Wyo. Why are we so in
Speaker 5: denial when we know we're not happy here?
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 5: So uh yeah, like like if we're upset with what's happening,
Speaker 5: you know, we're we are in an abusive relationship with
Speaker 5: a dictator. Like I'm not going to sugarcoat it, but
Speaker 5: we do have our constitutional rights. We have the freedom
Speaker 5: of expression and you know, and I've been scared to
Speaker 5: like be public about things on social media, but like
Speaker 5: what here I am, you know, and you know, like
Speaker 5: we have these amazing rights bestowed to us by the Constitution,
Speaker 5: foreign born or not, that we get to fight for
Speaker 5: and we get to have. And so yeah, like things
Speaker 5: are bad, but things have been worse and there's only
Speaker 5: up from here, and you know, like like just think
Speaker 5: about it this way, like, yeah, things are gonna get
Speaker 5: really bad, like stuff's gonna hit the fan, right, but
Speaker 5: we're gonna get to rebuilt on the other side of this.
Speaker 5: And so like what do you want that world to
Speaker 5: look like? Like you you get to shape it? Like
Speaker 5: that is the beauty of our people in this country,
Speaker 5: the land of opportunity. So like, I don't know, slide
Speaker 5: into my d MS in a good way and we
Speaker 5: can talk. We can talk about like where you were,
Speaker 5: where you belong, like let's find you your moment. And
Speaker 5: to our artists are are you know, the muses the
Speaker 5: people that inspire us, like I challenge you know, the
Speaker 5: very musicians that you play on the station to inspire
Speaker 5: the listeners. You know, I'm from Miami, So we're gonna
Speaker 5: talk about Two Life Crew because but there's this other
Speaker 5: album that they made. Okay, so you might not know this,
Speaker 5: but in the early nineties, the Reagans, these conservative people
Speaker 5: were really upset about Miami booty based and I just
Speaker 5: think that you know, they too are oppressed people and
Speaker 5: have never been invited to a good getty. And I
Speaker 5: think that's why MAGA is so upset. Truly, they got
Speaker 5: left out, but don't worry, we can fix that for you.
Speaker 5: But you know, Uncle Luke, they were making this music
Speaker 5: and people were up in arms, and that's not why
Speaker 5: we have like the explicit little warning label. But like
Speaker 5: they wrote an entire album making fun of the legislators,
Speaker 5: like the people who like ratted them out, like all
Speaker 5: these things, and you know, and they have like this
Speaker 5: really wonderful album talking about you know, like what happened
Speaker 5: to them and how they fought and they won because
Speaker 5: we have the First Amendment, we have freedom of expression
Speaker 5: and freedom of speech, and so I don't know, look
Speaker 5: it up. It's great. Uncle Luke is also very politically involved.
Speaker 2: So yeah, a long time for band in the USA.
Speaker 1: Listen listening to you talk that it's very special, And
Speaker 1: I hope I don't go on too long here, but
Speaker 1: I definitely want to say something because we talk to
Speaker 1: people at the highest heights of activism, of media, of
Speaker 1: you know, doctor Kendy's been on, We've had Joy Read
Speaker 1: was on recently. We had you know, pick a person,
Speaker 1: Ambassador Rice, we had any name, and then we talked
Speaker 1: to each other quite a bit on the show. But
Speaker 1: for many people in the world, people listening you know,
Speaker 1: they wake up and then they go to work, and
Speaker 1: then after work they get their kids, and then they
Speaker 1: go home, and then you know, they wake up the
Speaker 1: next day and then there's more news on their phone
Speaker 1: and they're like, oh my god, Okay, well now we
Speaker 1: have to figure out this and don't care. They rolled
Speaker 1: that back and there's no more of that. So what
Speaker 1: are my kids? What's going to happen for my children?
Speaker 2: And this is.
Speaker 1: Reality for a lot of people. Wake up every day
Speaker 1: to another gut punch from this administration. This was the
Speaker 1: reality for a lot of folks during the first Trump
Speaker 1: presis every single day there was something design. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: having a conversation with you a person that can work
Speaker 1: at any level and do more than like a post
Speaker 1: on Instagram or vote every couple of you know years
Speaker 1: or whatever, but actually get out there and get active
Speaker 1: with free time or get other people galvanized in the
Speaker 1: community to get active and make some changes. Providing that
Speaker 1: framework for our listeners, I think that's really what a
Speaker 1: lot of people might be looking for when they when
Speaker 1: they're confronting their own helplessness, that feeling of helplessness. And
Speaker 1: I want to speak to this as well because the
Speaker 1: way you broke down diversity, equity and inclusion is the
Speaker 1: way Q breaks down diversity, equity and inclusion. He makes
Speaker 1: sure to say it fully to people, right, and then
Speaker 1: dare them to attack it because DEI as an acronym.
Speaker 1: It's like it's become a bad word. But I often
Speaker 1: get us some trouble, and sometimes Q gets us some trouble.
Speaker 1: But this one's mind, I'll fall on this sword. I
Speaker 1: will break down what it is that woke means for
Speaker 1: people like I don't coward coward from that word.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: So if people are like, oh this woke nonsense, yep, soul, woke,
Speaker 1: you sleep, you know what I'm saying, Like, I sleep, woke,
Speaker 1: stay woke, and I don't. I don't let them bully
Speaker 1: that word out of my vocabulary. Right, say it's true
Speaker 1: with DI Right, these are good words and good terms,
Speaker 1: and any morally human being would agree with that. The
Speaker 1: only people that could challenge that, the only people that
Speaker 1: do challenge that are often enough to break it down
Speaker 1: one more time on the show Heterosexual, Christian, straight, healthy
Speaker 1: white male and I can tell you what, Okay, so
Speaker 1: we might have to get there. Let me stick the
Speaker 1: land out and that's not to say that all of
Speaker 1: them are on that, but those people and the people
Speaker 1: that stand to benefit from them holding on to what
Speaker 1: power they have, they have managed to turn everything into
Speaker 1: a personal attack on them, and they have misrepresented the
Speaker 1: Civil Rights Act.
Speaker 2: They have they have.
Speaker 1: Miss misinterpreted or I'm not sure that it's the right word,
Speaker 1: but they've used that for cover for themselves, and they
Speaker 1: in doing so defied the equity part of it, because
Speaker 1: the Civil Rights Act was to bring about equity. And
Speaker 1: yet and still they will judge us by their standards. Well,
Speaker 1: black people are only at this level. Well white people
Speaker 1: are at this level, and then they will blame things
Speaker 1: like an inferior culture as opposed to blaming things that
Speaker 1: are just like systemic oppression, systemic issues. Now, I don't
Speaker 1: want to talk too much.
Speaker 4: You'll talk to us a little bit about you know
Speaker 4: why this specific group of people feels that way, because
Speaker 4: I want to say this too. Those are still our brothers.
Speaker 4: They're always are going to be our brothers. But maybe
Speaker 4: we're missing something or maybe there's a different approach.
Speaker 2: We can take.
Speaker 1: Please.
Speaker 5: I mean there's I think there's like two things going
Speaker 5: on here. Like one, we are systematically, like always online,
Speaker 5: and there's just like bad information out there, and so
Speaker 5: we have to be careful with how we consume information.
Speaker 5: But then the real thing is, you know, and I've
Speaker 5: done a lot of work in therapy, and so I
Speaker 5: can tell you that, you know, it's it's hard doing
Speaker 5: this work, and so you got to get yourself a
Speaker 5: support system. But they are projecting their fears onto us.
Speaker 5: White males in specific are afraid that when people of color,
Speaker 5: oppressed people, minorities, marginalized communities, when we come into power,
Speaker 5: they are afraid that we are going to treat them
Speaker 5: the way that they have treated us, you know, like
Speaker 5: And so I'll leave you with this one thought is
Speaker 5: people who have been oppressed are the only ones who
Speaker 5: can undo that oppression. And that's why you need to
Speaker 5: have a pro black movement that is full of allies
Speaker 5: to free us.
Speaker 1: I love that, well well said, and we're gonna leave
Speaker 1: it right there, not because we don't want to keep talking,
Speaker 1: but because time is a finite resource on these stations.
Speaker 1: And so Zamie Perez, thank you for taking the time
Speaker 1: to come and talk to us and sharing the work
Speaker 1: that you do. I want to share your social media
Speaker 1: one more time at your political prima. People can find
Speaker 1: you on TikTok and Instagram and you know, keep up
Speaker 1: with you, get more information. Hopefully you'll come back on
Speaker 1: the show and you know we'll continue to build because yeah,
Speaker 1: you're a fantastic speaker and we definitely need that. Be
Speaker 1: sure to follow us on all social media as well.
Speaker 1: You can follow the show at civic Cipher on all platforms.
Speaker 1: You follow me at Rams's.
Speaker 2: Job I am Qward on all social media as well.
Speaker 1: And don't forget. You can download this in any previous
Speaker 1: episode at civiccipher dot com. You can also submit any questions,
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Speaker 1: The show grows with your donations and else so until
Speaker 1: next week, you'll peace