Speaker 1: Broadcasting from the Hip Hop Weekly Studios. I'd like to
Speaker 1: welcome you to another episode of Civic Cipher, where our
Speaker 1: mission is to foster allyship, empathy and understanding. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: ramses joh he is ramses Jah, I am q Ward.
Speaker 1: You are tuned into Civic Cipher d R and we
Speaker 1: have a special show for you with a special guest.
Speaker 1: This has been a long time coming. Too long, extra
Speaker 1: special guests, extra special sauce on it. Yeah, too much sauce,
Speaker 1: but yeah. A friend of the show, a friend of
Speaker 1: ours in real life, and a person that we look
Speaker 1: up to and respect a whole lot is back in
Speaker 1: the studio with us. She goes by the name of
Speaker 1: Suzanne Aslam and she is a human rights major, former
Speaker 1: Miss Airbusay actress as well as activist turned writer. You
Speaker 1: should also know that as an activist in Palestinian American
Speaker 1: she spent time in Palestine working with a peacekeeping team
Speaker 1: and as a deep personal understanding of the occupation. You
Speaker 1: can pre follow her at the Activist on social media
Speaker 1: and she's going to have a conversation with us that
Speaker 1: we feel again is a long time coming. There have
Speaker 1: been a lot of changes since our last conversation about Palestine,
Speaker 1: how to best show up for Palestinians, Palestinian Americans, and
Speaker 1: really she's in a unique position to offer insight into
Speaker 1: the mind of a Palestinian person and how to be
Speaker 1: present in a very human moment for our brothers and
Speaker 1: sisters who call Palestine home. So welcome back to the show.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we're also going to spend some time talking
Speaker 1: about what we should be thinking about when we head
Speaker 1: to the ballot box in November in terms of keeping
Speaker 1: our Palestinian brothers and sisters in mind as well. So
Speaker 1: all that and more coming up on the show. But
Speaker 1: before we get there, let's do like we always do
Speaker 1: and start off with some ebony excellence. Shall we think
Speaker 1: you shall?
Speaker 3: This week's Ebony Excellence is sponsored by actively Black. There
Speaker 3: is greatness in our DNA. Visit actively black dot com.
Speaker 3: Story comes from USA today. Kendrick Lamar is headed to
Speaker 3: the super Bowl. A Compton to.
Speaker 1: The Super Bowl to Compton One Time.
Speaker 2: Then Not Like Us.
Speaker 3: Rapper, at thirty seven years old, is set to perform
Speaker 3: during the twenty twenty five Apple Music.
Speaker 2: Super Bowl halftime show.
Speaker 3: He shared this new Sunday in a YouTube video that
Speaker 3: showed Lamar on the football field in front of a
Speaker 3: giant American flag. He said, quote, my name is Kendrick Lamar,
Speaker 3: and I'll be performing at Super Bowl. I think this
Speaker 3: is fifty nine. Will you be pulling up? I hope so.
Speaker 3: Rock Nation, Apple Music, and the NFL confirmed the news
Speaker 3: in a news release, and the NFL shared a promotional
Speaker 3: poster on Twitter that showed Lamar sitting on a football field.
Speaker 3: Rap music is still the more impactful genre to date,
Speaker 3: Lamar said in a statement on Sunday, and I'll be
Speaker 3: there to remind the world why they got the right one.
Speaker 3: Kendrick Lamar is having a incredible year, wouldn't you say?
Speaker 2: Ram?
Speaker 1: I would say that, and everybody who's being critical, I
Speaker 1: would say that, you know, bite your tongue.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's a and bi critical. There's a swell on
Speaker 3: these internets and social media places that people are determined
Speaker 3: that there should be more New Orleans.
Speaker 2: Hip hop artists featured in this show.
Speaker 3: And I'll say this one, we have no idea who's
Speaker 3: going to be featured in the show yet it's five
Speaker 3: months away.
Speaker 2: Two.
Speaker 3: The only time in the history of the Super Bowl
Speaker 3: that a hometown artist performed was in Los Angeles two
Speaker 3: years ago. Three a hip hop artists singularly headlining the
Speaker 3: Super Bowl should be celebratory for every one.
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk more about that on the Black Information Network.
Speaker 1: That needs some unpacking. Anyway, Suzanne Oslam is back on
Speaker 1: the show with us, and you have been up to
Speaker 1: something since we last spoke, so.
Speaker 2: Bring us up to speed.
Speaker 1: I know you've been doing some traveling.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: What was the nature of your travels?
Speaker 4: Just kind of Oh, yes, I went to a tiny
Speaker 4: little place no one's sort of called Palestine.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay.
Speaker 4: I was there in July for a wedding because, believe
Speaker 4: it or not, life still goes on as much as possible,
Speaker 4: and my cousin was getting married, so I had the
Speaker 4: privilege of going and spending a week's worth of just ceremonies.
Speaker 4: You know, every night there was something and it was
Speaker 4: so incredibly beautiful. And it was extra beautiful because the
Speaker 4: night of his actual wedding, between leaving the church and
Speaker 4: going to the Hall where Christians, so we had the
Speaker 4: ceremony at the church, we got news that down the
Speaker 4: road and the next town over, some Israeli snipers had
Speaker 4: just like pulled up in tanks in front of the
Speaker 4: Mehad which is the Church of the Nativity, and then
Speaker 4: in beit Jaala, which is another town nearby, they rolled
Speaker 4: up in tanks, snipers came out, and they kind of
Speaker 4: just posted up and we didn't know why, and so
Speaker 4: everybody was a little bit nervous, and it was so
Speaker 4: strange to kind of watch it from this vantage point
Speaker 4: where we're at a wedding and my cousin just got
Speaker 4: married to his beautiful bride and we're so celebratory and
Speaker 4: everybody's dressed up and makeup and dresses and it's so fun.
Speaker 4: And then at the same time we had to hold
Speaker 4: that information and going, Okay, what's happening to our brothers
Speaker 4: and sisters down the street. What do we do? So
Speaker 4: when we got to the hall, the DJ said, look,
Speaker 4: we're gonna go on, but take take the pictures that
Speaker 4: you want, take the videos that you want, but let's,
Speaker 4: out of respect, just not post anything tonight until we
Speaker 4: know more. And they're always functioning that way. They're always
Speaker 4: trying to find this balance of joy while also living
Speaker 4: in chaos. And having that moment to experience that was
Speaker 4: really was really beautiful because it just shows so much
Speaker 4: of the resilience that they have, and they're not willing
Speaker 4: to joy is a part of resistance, you know, they're
Speaker 4: not willing to.
Speaker 1: Give that up. I forgot who said it, but when
Speaker 1: you say that joy is a part of resistance, I've
Speaker 1: heard that, Like it almost might have been Bar for
Speaker 1: Bar what you said. It's such a special thing to
Speaker 1: think how surviving and thriving and being happy and smiling
Speaker 1: is it'll break the spirit of your enemy. Yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: and that's something that I think that is. It is
Speaker 1: certainly noteworthy. I want to mention something here. Did this
Speaker 1: take place in the West Bank?
Speaker 4: It did in Bethlehem.
Speaker 1: That's incredible.
Speaker 3: Congratulations and blessings to the family as well.
Speaker 1: Absolutely. One of the things that happened while I was
Speaker 1: here and you were there. You don't know this, but
Speaker 1: I was invited to a I guess it's a form
Speaker 1: of protest. It was a movie screening.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 1: I had been, of course, to the college campuses for
Speaker 1: those protests, and I had been, you know, all these
Speaker 1: neat little places where I can support in any meaningful
Speaker 1: way that I can. But I was invited to this
Speaker 1: movie screening and it was like transformative in a way
Speaker 1: that I didn't expect. Forgive me, because I know we've
Speaker 1: we've shouted out this movie on the show before, Q
Speaker 1: and I have, but I feel like it's called Where
Speaker 1: Olive Trees Grow. That's it, okay with Okay, I love him, Okay,
Speaker 1: And I can't spoil the end of the movie for you.
Speaker 2: Do you know the ending of You haven't seen it?
Speaker 1: You haven't, Okay, Well, then I can't spoil the movie
Speaker 1: the ending of the movie for everyone. But if you're
Speaker 1: able to watch this movie, then I'm sure that you
Speaker 1: will kind of appreciate a perspective that I had come
Speaker 1: to appreciate famously on the show. I mentioned to you before,
Speaker 1: I mentioned to our our brother resistance is beautiful.
Speaker 2: That I grew up.
Speaker 1: Being nurtured by Jewish people, and so my default setting
Speaker 1: has always been protect Jewish people, Protect Jewish people, and
Speaker 1: it still is and it will be in perpetuity. So
Speaker 1: I didn't think beyond just the faith, to what is
Speaker 1: the political structure look like in Israel. I didn't even
Speaker 1: think Israel, you know what I mean? This was just
Speaker 1: a problem that was too far away from me. I
Speaker 1: didn't I didn't know what Zion is meant and I
Speaker 1: did all these things I was unaware of. And during
Speaker 1: this time, since last year around October seventh, we're about
Speaker 1: a year in. Now I've come to know much more,
Speaker 1: and I can see more parallels in the Palestinian people's
Speaker 1: plight and black people's plight in this country. Then I'm
Speaker 1: able to see, you know, I'm also able to see
Speaker 1: like the political structure as being oppressive in Israel over
Speaker 1: Palestinian folks. And a year in having at least a
Speaker 1: basis to receive that movie, it's heartbreaking. It's just flat heartbreaking,
Speaker 1: I mean. And the craziest part about it is, like
Speaker 1: you said, the whole movie there's gunshots, there's people trying
Speaker 1: to do interviews and they're afraid, and there's people talking
Speaker 1: about their children, and I can say that's part the
Speaker 1: whole movie takes place in the West Bank, right, But
Speaker 1: they smile. There's joy in that movie, and then it
Speaker 1: has like an m Night Shalaman ending and you're like,
Speaker 1: You're like, what you know? So I highly recommend that
Speaker 1: you check that out. Now, I don't want to get
Speaker 1: too far off. I do want you to talk more
Speaker 1: some recent things that have happened, and you know, just
Speaker 1: kind of give us your thoughts, your reflections. There's been
Speaker 1: news news stories, headlines of hostages being recovered from hamas
Speaker 1: and news stories of hostages being killed, and you know,
Speaker 1: net and Yahoo had this big pushback on the ground
Speaker 1: because of the hostages that he had been saying he
Speaker 1: was going to rescue, rather than him being able to
Speaker 1: kind of twist that narrative and say, see, I told
Speaker 1: you these were bad guys that people kind of turned
Speaker 1: against him a little bit, at least that's what I sawloading. Okay,
Speaker 1: so talk to us a little bit about kind of
Speaker 1: how that moment hits you.
Speaker 4: Well, they still remember. The Israeli people still remember that
Speaker 4: before all this happened, they were out in the streets
Speaker 4: protesting Netanyahu because he's been on they'se got allegations against
Speaker 4: him for corruption and fraud and some other things. And
Speaker 4: for a while a short amount of time, he wasn't
Speaker 4: a prime minister. A guy named Naftali was prime was
Speaker 4: the prime minister, and so they were out on the
Speaker 4: streets protesting him, demanding elections. So they already kind of
Speaker 4: have a bad idea of bb BB's his nickname. So
Speaker 4: when this happened when he didn't get the hostages back,
Speaker 4: when he didn't make the hostages a priority for the
Speaker 4: Israeli people, this just just kind of further cemented their
Speaker 4: opinion of him. He I think, as a politician, was
Speaker 4: using it to go, oh, this is so great, like
Speaker 4: now I'm going to go to war and we're defending
Speaker 4: our people against these terrorists. But so many Israeli saw it, well,
Speaker 4: you're not. We don't care about that. We want you
Speaker 4: to get our hostages home. And the fact that wasn't
Speaker 4: his focus. They saw through that they had so many
Speaker 4: opportunities for a ceasefire deal, and it was always you
Speaker 4: won't hear this in the mainstream media because my whole
Speaker 4: life people have said, oh, Israel offered a peace deal
Speaker 4: in the Palcini and said no, it's always the opposite.
Speaker 4: Or they'll offer a peace deal where we get absolutely nothing,
Speaker 4: and then they go, I don't understand why you said no.
Speaker 4: So there's been so many offerings of a peace deal,
Speaker 4: of a ceasefire and Israel will say no, or they
Speaker 4: will say something like sure, but we're going to keep bombing,
Speaker 4: like it just doesn't make sense, and so they see
Speaker 4: through that. I will also say though, that when you
Speaker 4: see the protesters out in the streets in Tel Aviv,
Speaker 4: half a million, Yes, they are not protesting the end
Speaker 4: of the genocide. That needs to be noted. They are
Speaker 4: not saying, hey, the genocide is terrible, or even calling
Speaker 4: it a genocide. They just are focused on their hostages.
Speaker 4: I flew into Tel Aviv, which is really weird to do,
Speaker 4: and to share the airspace with the same airplanes that
Speaker 4: are bombing my brothers and sisters in Gaza. It was
Speaker 4: very weird for me. When I got into the airport,
Speaker 4: there were you know, the the yellow tie that represents
Speaker 4: the hostages. We used to do it for soldiers who
Speaker 4: died inn I rocked the ribbon. Yeah, thank you. They
Speaker 4: were everywhere, and it was pictures just on the floor,
Speaker 4: just lined against the halls of the airport, of the hostages.
Speaker 4: That is the primary focus of the Israeli people. In
Speaker 4: the Israeli government's view, like the narrative that they want
Speaker 4: to push is oh, the hostages, that's why we're doing
Speaker 4: what we're doing. But their people are not happy with it.
Speaker 1: Another thing that I want to add here is there
Speaker 1: was a recent article that came out that said, a
Speaker 1: number of country have stopped supplying weapons to Israel. The
Speaker 1: United States is not on that list, correct yet. I
Speaker 1: don't know that the United States will be on that list,
Speaker 1: but I just kind of wanted to get your thoughts
Speaker 1: because the last time we spoke, it was about how
Speaker 1: global support had continually shifted away from Israel in favor
Speaker 1: of Palestinian folks. So when you came across that headline,
Speaker 1: you know, well.
Speaker 4: So two things. The UK recently suspended licenses to send
Speaker 4: weapons some kind I can't remember the terminology, but they
Speaker 4: suspended like thirty out of three hundred and fifty or
Speaker 4: some like ridiculous number like that, So it'd been a
Speaker 4: It's kind of a good start, but thirty out of
Speaker 4: hundreds doesn't seem like you're really trying. It seems like
Speaker 4: you're trying to just shut us up, because if you
Speaker 4: really thought what they were doing was bad, why wouldn't
Speaker 4: you just suspend all licenses. Secondly, the United States is
Speaker 4: it supplies seventy percent of Israel's arms exports seventy percent.
Speaker 4: Not only that, but the US is responsible for the
Speaker 4: upkeep of these weapons, so when they need parts and
Speaker 4: things like that, we also participate in that.
Speaker 2: If we were.
Speaker 1: To stop, we as in the United States.
Speaker 4: Yes, if the America was to stop, and everybody else
Speaker 4: even tried to keep going, if America stopped, the genocide
Speaker 4: would stop grind to a halt. Yes, because we are
Speaker 4: seventy percent of the arms exports that they receive. So
Speaker 4: it's nice that the other countries are doing that, but
Speaker 4: it's not as important as the United States stopping.
Speaker 1: All right, We're going to get to some of the
Speaker 1: We're gonna shift gears here, do it. Okay, you are
Speaker 1: our sister, we are your brothers. This conversation is for
Speaker 1: us to learn and for our listeners to learn. Everything
Speaker 1: that we say, and if it sounds challenging, will come
Speaker 1: from a place of love.
Speaker 2: Uh, We're like that.
Speaker 1: That's it. We were invited to Kamala Harris rally. We're
Speaker 1: gonna talk more about this in the second half of
Speaker 1: the show, but we were invited to a Kamala Harris
Speaker 1: rally and we went this is what we do and
Speaker 1: she was talking and there was a group of people
Speaker 1: up in the corner of the stadium and those people
Speaker 1: got active. And that's my kind of people, right, because
Speaker 1: I get active. I get outside. You can see me
Speaker 1: in the streets with a sign with my sons doing whatever,
Speaker 1: right Q two. I mean I'm not gonna you know,
Speaker 1: but I like that energy.
Speaker 2: I like.
Speaker 1: Okay, let's direct action, voting and all of that too,
Speaker 1: but direct action.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: So when they started getting busy, and remember I march
Speaker 1: with these people, like some of them, I know, you know,
Speaker 1: sit ins, you know, pass out water, receive water from,
Speaker 1: you know, wrote signs with all of that, these same
Speaker 1: people when they start interrupting her speech, as they should
Speaker 1: in my opinion, in my opinion, as they should. Not
Speaker 1: everybody agrees with that, that's okay, but some people got
Speaker 1: the mic and some don't. And those people have lives
Speaker 1: and their lives have work, and they have values, and
Speaker 1: they have to end if they can't express themselves. And
Speaker 1: they get together and they shout that's how it goes.
Speaker 1: That's you know, you can fight me in the street
Speaker 1: over that. Kamala Harris says something that says she I
Speaker 1: don't know exactly what she said, but effectually she said,
Speaker 1: you know that she wants to do more.
Speaker 2: Or to support.
Speaker 1: Palestinian independence, autonomous determination determination. Now, that same thing happened
Speaker 1: while I'm reading a headline on my phone that says
Speaker 1: the United States sends however many billion more worth of
Speaker 1: weapons to Israel. Right, how does that take us into
Speaker 1: a moment like that with you where it might feel
Speaker 1: like somebody is talking out of both sides of her mouth,
Speaker 1: or do you make a distinction.
Speaker 4: There's there's no distinction, okay, so talk to us, zero distinction.
Speaker 2: That is your.
Speaker 4: Insane to me for her to go what she has said,
Speaker 4: almost verbatim, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is so sad
Speaker 4: as if it were a hurricane that went through. Okay,
Speaker 4: that it was completely out of our control. It's just
Speaker 4: so sad and so horrible what's happening. And then in
Speaker 4: the same breath say, I support Israel one hundred percent,
Speaker 4: and it's right to defend itself, defend itself from whom.
Speaker 4: The bombs that they're dropping on innocent civilians in Gaza,
Speaker 4: it makes no sense, but it makes sense if you
Speaker 4: realize that APAC has given her millions of dollars. A
Speaker 4: pack is technically, legally in America a lobby group, but
Speaker 4: really they're a foreign agent. They're a foreign agent that
Speaker 4: is in line with only Israel's interest, and they are
Speaker 4: single handedly responsible for turning this place into the United
Speaker 4: States of Israel. They have managed to get laws passed
Speaker 4: that only benefit laws in America that only benefit the
Speaker 4: State of Israel, like anti boycott laws. So and she's
Speaker 4: funded by these people, she gets she has gotten more
Speaker 4: money from APAC than Trump has. And I'm not saying
Speaker 4: Trump's a good guy. I'm just saying that she's not
Speaker 4: this savior that's going to come and save us from Trump.
Speaker 4: She's just taking us down a different path to the
Speaker 4: same hell. Hers is just prettier and is blue. That's it,
Speaker 4: And she might get us there slower. But there's nothing
Speaker 4: about what she's saying that actually shows to us that
Speaker 4: she wants to stop the killing, actually provide self determination.
Speaker 4: Because if she cared about the self determination of Palestinians,
Speaker 4: she would want to stop the settlements, the illegals Raeli
Speaker 4: settlements that are happening across the West Bank. She would
Speaker 4: want to stop Israel Gaza from being demolished so they
Speaker 4: can actually rebuild. Right now, it's uninhabitable. It's just like,
Speaker 4: there's no way you can't live there right now. So
Speaker 4: what about what she's allegedly saying proves to me that
Speaker 4: she actually cares. Right now, it's an election season. She's
Speaker 4: supposed to be saying the things that get her elected,
Speaker 4: right she is saying things that to us show that
Speaker 4: she does not care about the Arab American vote, She
Speaker 4: does not care about the progressive vote. She does not
Speaker 4: actually care about ending the thing that we are most
Speaker 4: complicit in, which is genocide. So it kind of doesn't
Speaker 4: matter to me if you come to me with a
Speaker 4: list of all of her accomplishments, if she has any
Speaker 4: and says, oh, but look look what she did. She's
Speaker 4: lowered taxes. Does that matter if she commits genocide? And
Speaker 4: she is, because this is not the Biden administration. It
Speaker 4: is the Biden Harris administration. It's not like she's not
Speaker 4: in office and she's running for office. She's already in office.
Speaker 4: She has the second highest position in office. So to
Speaker 4: tell me that she's not currently complicit is insane. And again,
Speaker 4: she's not using any of her words to prove otherwise.
Speaker 4: She unequivocally stands with Israel and has stated as such.
Speaker 4: So what about her makes her better? In that she's
Speaker 4: again I don't like Trump. He uses Palestine as a
Speaker 4: slur he uses our name is a slur. But what
Speaker 4: about her? She's the one currently camitting genocide, That's all
Speaker 4: I got to say. And we created the United Nations
Speaker 4: to stop genocide. Like that's the line, right, isn't that
Speaker 4: the line? Hey, we're not going to support people who
Speaker 4: commit genocide? So does it matter? Like how many good
Speaker 4: things does she have to do to equate the fact
Speaker 4: that she's still committing genocide?
Speaker 1: So what we're going to do is we're going to
Speaker 1: talk more about that in the next part of the show,
Speaker 1: because that's what the whole next part of the show
Speaker 1: is dedicated to. How do we kind of reconcile the
Speaker 1: position that we're in with the things that we want.
Speaker 1: And I feel like you can give us some insight
Speaker 1: into the mind of a Palestinian person and how that
Speaker 1: must feel. That's something that we can provide. I do
Speaker 1: want to also add to the APAC thing that they
Speaker 1: spent a lot of money to oust a lot of
Speaker 1: really good candidates, and really specific primarily black.
Speaker 4: They want in some cases and they lost in some
Speaker 4: other cases.
Speaker 1: So we got a lot to talk about and it's
Speaker 1: going to be heavy, But before we get there, let's
Speaker 1: talk about our way Black History fact. Today's Way Black
Speaker 1: History factice sponsored by Major Threads for innovative, fashionable sportswear.
Speaker 1: Checkmajor threads dot com. Today's reading comes from Politico and
Speaker 1: we're talking about tipping. You might not think of tipping
Speaker 1: as the legacy of slavery, but it has a far
Speaker 1: more racialized history than most Americans realized. Tipping originated in
Speaker 1: feudal Europe and was imported back to the United States
Speaker 1: by American travelers eager to seem sophisticated. The practice spread
Speaker 1: throughout the country after the Civil War as US employers,
Speaker 1: largely in the hospitality sector, looked for ways to avoid
Speaker 1: paying formally enslaved workers. Tipping further entrenched a unique and
Speaker 1: often racialized class structure in service jobs, in which workers
Speaker 1: must please both customer and employer to earn anything at all.
Speaker 1: A journalist quoted in Carrie's Seagrave's two thousand and nine
Speaker 1: book Tipping and American Social History of Gratitudes wrote in
Speaker 1: nineteen oh two that he was embarrassed to offer a
Speaker 1: tip to a white man.
Speaker 2: Quote.
Speaker 1: Negroes take tips, of course, expects that of them it
Speaker 1: is a token of their inferiority. He wrote, goes on
Speaker 1: to say tips go with servility, and no man who
Speaker 1: is a voter in this country is in the least
Speaker 1: justified in being in service. The immorality of paying an
Speaker 1: insufficient wage to workers who then were forced to rely
Speaker 1: on tips was acknowledged at the time. In his popular
Speaker 1: nineteen sixteen anti tipping study The Itching Palm, writer William
Speaker 1: Scott described tipping as an aristocratic custom that went against
Speaker 1: American ideals. Quote the relation of man of a man
Speaker 1: giving a tip and a man accepting it is as
Speaker 1: undemocratic as the relation of master and slave. Goes on
Speaker 1: to say, a citizen in the Republic ought to stand
Speaker 1: shoulder to shoulder with every other citizen, with no thought
Speaker 1: of cringing, without an assumption of superiority or acknowledgment of inferiority.
Speaker 1: Several states sought to end the practice in the early
Speaker 1: nineteen hundreds, often in recognition of its racist roots, but
Speaker 1: in the restaurant industry. Sorry, The restaurant industry fought back
Speaker 1: and was powerful enough to roll back local bands on
Speaker 1: tipping and tip workers along with most others. As the
Speaker 1: Act applied to industries that together made up only one
Speaker 1: fifth of the labor force were excluded from the first
Speaker 1: limited federal minimum wage law, passed in nineteen thirty eight.
Speaker 1: It took until nineteen sixty six for advocates to win
Speaker 1: a base wage for tipped workers, and that amounted to
Speaker 1: only fifty percent of the minimum wage already guaranteed to
Speaker 1: other workers. Congress continued to raise the subminimum wage tipped
Speaker 1: until nineteen ninety six, when Hermann Kine, who headed the
Speaker 1: National Restaurant Association at the time, offered legislators of bargain
Speaker 1: the industry would accept a small increase in the minimum
Speaker 1: wage as long as the tipped wage was frozen at
Speaker 1: two dollars and thirteen cents an hour. Congress agreed to
Speaker 1: the deal, and the tipped minimum wage remains at just
Speaker 1: two dollars and thirteen cents to this day. Research also
Speaker 1: shows that tipping itself has a racial component. Customers generally
Speaker 1: give white workers bigger tips and black workers regardless of
Speaker 1: service quality. Thanks in part to segregation within the industry
Speaker 1: and discrimination from patrons, Restaurant worker poverty rates are highest
Speaker 1: for women and people of color. Now, that is not
Speaker 1: at all the entirety of that political article. If you
Speaker 1: want to find out more about the racist roots of tipping.
Speaker 1: Please check it out again. It's tipping on Politico. I
Speaker 1: know that we live in a world now post COVID
Speaker 1: where tips are, people are asking for tips everywhere, and
Speaker 1: there's a not insignificant movement to change that. Tipping actually
Speaker 1: hurts a lot of people on all fronts. If you're
Speaker 1: not aware of it, there's just no Google is free,
Speaker 1: as Q would say. But to know that it has
Speaker 1: its roots in the racist history of this country is
Speaker 1: something that you know you should be aware of. And
Speaker 1: the next time you're dealing with the service worker who
Speaker 1: happens to be black and female, just kind of check
Speaker 1: how you're treating the circumstances. Keep on riding with us
Speaker 1: as we continue to broadcast the balance and defend the
Speaker 1: discourse from these hip hop weekly studios. Welcome back to
Speaker 1: Civic Cipher. I am your host, Rams's job. He is
Speaker 1: Rams's jaw. I am q Ward. You are tuned in
Speaker 1: the Civic Cipher and we are in the middle of
Speaker 1: a of a.
Speaker 2: Neat little conversation.
Speaker 1: H Suzanne Oslom joins us once again on the show.
Speaker 1: For those who don't know, she is a human rights major,
Speaker 1: former Miss arab Usa actress as well as activist turned
Speaker 1: writer and as an activist in Palestinian American she spent
Speaker 1: time in Palestine working with a peacekeeping team. She also
Speaker 1: has a deep personal understanding of the occupation. Please follow
Speaker 1: her social media at the Activist and today we are
Speaker 1: going to be discussing casting our votes while bearing the
Speaker 1: plight of our Palestinian brothers and sisters in mind. That
Speaker 1: is a tough one and I know that I will
Speaker 1: be doing less talking. You probably will be talking more
Speaker 1: to C this time. And so before we get there,
Speaker 1: let's discuss Baba becoming a better ally. Baba. I think
Speaker 1: you should knock this one out.
Speaker 3: Sponsored by Friends of the Movement, you can sign up
Speaker 3: for the free voter wallet from fotmglobal dot com to
Speaker 3: support black businesses and allied businesses as well as make
Speaker 3: an impact with your spending. Again, that's fotmglobal dot com.
Speaker 3: This week we are highlighting Detroit MotorCity Track Club in
Speaker 3: oak Park High school track coach Brandon Giles from varied
Speaker 3: sources in Michigan media. Nothing is promised, but betting against
Speaker 3: oak parkgirls to not win the state title is starting
Speaker 3: to become a perilous exercise. The olk Park High School
Speaker 3: Michigan girls track and field team recently won their eighth
Speaker 3: Division one Michigan High School Athletic Association state title in
Speaker 3: the last ten seasons. The Knights we came back to
Speaker 3: back winners with their performance this past year at East
Speaker 3: Kinwood High School amounting to the program's fifth champion in
Speaker 3: the last six finals.
Speaker 2: Oak parkhead coach.
Speaker 3: Brandon Giles said when his team won regionals, We're going
Speaker 3: to do what we have to do to put ourselves
Speaker 3: in a position to win, and the kids know what
Speaker 3: to do.
Speaker 2: They're willing to do whatever it takes to win.
Speaker 3: If we bring our best, we'll be the team to beat.
Speaker 3: But at the same time, we've got to show up.
Speaker 3: Coach Giles previously served as the assistant manager and assistant
Speaker 3: coach for the USA Under eighteen World Championship team. It's
Speaker 3: important to point out that coach Giles funds this team
Speaker 3: entirely out of his own pocket, and we want to
Speaker 3: amplify what he's doing and shine a light on it.
Speaker 3: Anyone interested in donating can go to Civiccipher dot com
Speaker 3: and we will get your donations to him, or if
Speaker 3: you use cash app dollar sign MotorCity Track Club. But
Speaker 3: we will be highlighting the work that he's doing because
Speaker 3: I think it's incredibly important and powerful that he's taking
Speaker 3: it upon himself to fully fund this initiative singularly.
Speaker 1: All right, so.
Speaker 2: Than you, yes, sir, kay h, the floor is yours.
Speaker 2: Where do we start?
Speaker 1: That's a good question, Okay.
Speaker 2: I guess where did we leave off?
Speaker 1: Well, Kamala Harris is now the Democratic nominee for President
Speaker 1: of the United States. When we last spoke, Joe Biden was.
Speaker 1: Kamala Harris presents a different dynamic. She galvanizes, franchises a different.
Speaker 2: Group of people.
Speaker 1: She excites people top to bottom in a way that
Speaker 1: Joe Biden couldn't because of his age, because of a
Speaker 1: number of things. And yet she still represents the Biden
Speaker 1: Harris administration that is actively committing a genocide in Palestine.
Speaker 1: There are people who are excited about Kamala Harris's candidacy.
Speaker 1: There are Black women who are excited about Kamala Harris's candidacy.
Speaker 1: There are Black women who are aka's who are excited
Speaker 1: about Kamala Harris's candidacy, and reconciling that with the truth
Speaker 1: of the matter, which is that there are human beings
Speaker 1: on the ground who I feel and I'm not the
Speaker 1: only one we feel. I'll say, have supported us, have
Speaker 1: stood with us? Have you done what we would have
Speaker 1: hoped in solidarity with us in the past. They feel
Speaker 1: at odds with at least Joe Biden's agenda. But as
Speaker 1: you placed it, and I don't want to pretend like
Speaker 1: you didn't say that, and that it's not factual the
Speaker 1: Biden Harris administration. Yeah, it leaves us in an interesting
Speaker 1: position because, as Q would say, and this is why
Speaker 1: I was setting him up, somebody's going to be the
Speaker 1: president any takers.
Speaker 2: Sure. The most difficult thing to reconcile is that our.
Speaker 3: Country, not just our current president, especially our legislators, our politicians,
Speaker 3: our leadership. It's not opinion to say that they are
Speaker 3: complicit in the genocide that's happening with our brothers and
Speaker 3: sisters in Gaza, our current president self proclaimed Zionists.
Speaker 2: The question that we are left with.
Speaker 3: In a two party binary electorate, on November sixth, a
Speaker 3: new president would have been elected, and somewhere around January sixth,
Speaker 3: a new president will be inaugurated and expected to lead
Speaker 3: us forward. Toward whichever path we will be on from
Speaker 3: that point forward. For the next four years, we have
Speaker 3: been faced with the idea for now multiple elections, the
Speaker 3: lesser of two evils. The very interesting position for specifically
Speaker 3: black people. I won't even say people of color, because
Speaker 3: that's even different for black people in this country is
Speaker 3: making sure that we show up when our brothers and
Speaker 3: sisters that are not black need us, but having to
Speaker 3: find a way to show up for ourselves at the
Speaker 3: same time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, which in some cases.
Speaker 3: Is very, very difficult. Our sister has acknowledged there's no
Speaker 3: way to paint Donald Trump as a good person. There
Speaker 3: are zero redeeming qualities as a politician or as a
Speaker 3: human being. His views on minorities, his views on women,
Speaker 3: and his views on people who are not also billionaires
Speaker 3: are often vile, often disgusting, and often kind of.
Speaker 2: Crazy.
Speaker 3: I was looking for a better word, but I think
Speaker 3: crazy delusional does it. Vice President Harris is the former
Speaker 3: running mate and second in charge too, again a self
Speaker 3: proclaimed desionist, and I think her ability and this is
Speaker 3: purely opinion. I don't know our vice president, but her
Speaker 3: ability to make the type of change necessary even without
Speaker 3: her association with Apak would be more limited than people
Speaker 3: would imagine when the person that you work for, because
Speaker 3: I've been the second in charge somewhere before, the first
Speaker 3: in charge is the person who typically makes the decisions,
Speaker 3: and your job, by definition, is to support it. I
Speaker 3: won't know until the day after, or the year after,
Speaker 3: or years after how much different she'll be than Joe
Speaker 3: than President Biden. I'm sorry, but a friend of mine
Speaker 3: before it was just obvious that he was a Zionist,
Speaker 3: a friend of ours by the name of Sean King,
Speaker 3: told me to my face, Q, I love you, but
Speaker 3: there's no way I can support that man, And nothing
Speaker 3: in me felt any need to challenge that because I
Speaker 3: completely understood it. I, however, was left in a position where,
Speaker 3: sitting on this show talking to Ramses at the time
Speaker 3: that you weren't even here, bro, how do we move
Speaker 3: forward supporting that man? Once I watched him declare himself
Speaker 3: as Zionist on television, and even greater challenge was being presented,
Speaker 3: And I think, and again, none of us can speak
Speaker 3: from your perspective, but there was something to me at
Speaker 3: the acknowledgment of the right to life, the right to happiness,
Speaker 3: the right to self determination, for Palestinian people, because I
Speaker 3: hadn't heard anyone else say it, And of course it's
Speaker 3: just words at this point, we don't know what the
Speaker 3: pending actions will be. But I never heard Joe Biden
Speaker 3: say that. I had never heard anybody in Washington say that,
Speaker 3: especially with the history of Israel as an ally politically
Speaker 3: and with regard to military, with regard to money, which
Speaker 3: seems to be the most important thing to a lot
Speaker 3: of people that we call leaders, I'd never heard anyone
Speaker 3: say declaratively that Palestinian people had that right to self determination,
Speaker 3: that their right to their own statehood, that right to
Speaker 3: all the liberties that we pretend are so important to us.
Speaker 3: And I say pretending, because so often we show that again,
Speaker 3: money tends to be or seems to be, more important
Speaker 3: than everything else we pretend has value. Here, what we
Speaker 3: wrestle with is knowing that one of these candidates would
Speaker 3: have us, where we live, with our families, with our children,
Speaker 3: and our brothers and sisters, regressed to a point of
Speaker 3: random stopping frisk, the idea of mass deportation, because I
Speaker 3: know the three of us would fit the description of
Speaker 3: people who would need to be at least checked for documents,
Speaker 3: And what does it mean when you can't present the
Speaker 3: document that says you're allowed to be here because you're
Speaker 3: stopped and first randomly on the street by who knows who.
Speaker 3: We don't know what law enforcement agency or what office
Speaker 3: is supposed to handle this. These brown people don't belong
Speaker 3: here movement that they're trying to press forward. I think
Speaker 3: all of us are very familiar with Project twenty twenty five.
Speaker 3: It's nine hundred pages, so we don't have enough show
Speaker 3: to get into all the very disgusting things that are
Speaker 3: in that document.
Speaker 2: When it's time to.
Speaker 3: Make a choice, some people will throw their hands up
Speaker 3: and not make one, some as a form of protests,
Speaker 3: some as really just not knowing what to do. I
Speaker 3: cannot let this group of people down, but I can't
Speaker 3: let that group of people down either, So I can't participate.
Speaker 3: When people love you and want to show up for you,
Speaker 3: but love themselves.
Speaker 2: Too, what decision are they left to make?
Speaker 3: And this is not a question that there's an expected
Speaker 3: perfect answer for, but it's just the kind of questions
Speaker 3: that Ramses and I have to ask one another. When
Speaker 3: someone with your very unique perspective isn't present, how do
Speaker 3: we show up for people that we love when that
Speaker 3: doesn't just represent one group, when there's a ven diagram
Speaker 3: that not everyone's interests fit inside that crossover circle part.
Speaker 4: Until you realize it does. So you realize it does.
Speaker 4: Those police officers on the street frisking us for who
Speaker 4: knows what reason. Israel's the ones that trains those guys.
Speaker 4: They have their hands in here so deeply. We're so
Speaker 4: unaware of how much we're affected by the state of
Speaker 4: Israel here. That's why I made the offhanded joke that
Speaker 4: this is the United States of Israel, because it really is.
Speaker 4: So if we let it keep going the way it's going,
Speaker 4: they are only going to inflict more of their apartheid occupation,
Speaker 4: ethnic cleansing, genocidal thoughts into this. It's going to be
Speaker 4: embedded further and further. The fact that we still have
Speaker 4: to have a conversation about whether or not this is
Speaker 4: a genocide, The fact that we have to have a
Speaker 4: conversation where we have to explain to people that two
Speaker 4: million people and Gaza did not bring this upon themselves
Speaker 4: just shows the twisting of the narrative in the minds,
Speaker 4: The sickness that is a hold of so many people
Speaker 4: here when we talk about the lesser of two evils.
Speaker 4: I wrote a quote and I wrote it down. It said,
Speaker 4: when out of fear, you twist the lesser of evil
Speaker 4: into the lie that it is something good, you eventually
Speaker 4: rob people of the capacity to differentiate between good and evil.
Speaker 4: And the problem is two black men. You know this
Speaker 4: that it's not that we have to get the system
Speaker 4: back to where it was. The system is already set up,
Speaker 4: so it is not in the interest of people like
Speaker 4: you and I. Right when do we finally get to
Speaker 4: break the system? When when we are complicit in genocide?
Speaker 4: Feels like a really good time because we are complicit
Speaker 4: in a genocide, but we still have a little bit
Speaker 4: of rights here, not as much as we deserve, but
Speaker 4: we still have rights. So while we have our wits
Speaker 4: about us, wouldn't now be the time to break out
Speaker 4: of the matrix that is the fear cycle that we
Speaker 4: live through every four years of saying, oh my god,
Speaker 4: we have to vote for this guy because this guy's worse, Like,
Speaker 4: why don't we find a moment to break that? And
Speaker 4: why isn't it now when we still can? Okay, good question,
Speaker 4: So I don't idolize politicians. I used to love Obama,
Speaker 4: remember that, Remember how great he was at first. I
Speaker 4: don't idolize politicians at all. They're human beings and they
Speaker 4: people usually who want power shouldn't be in the position
Speaker 4: to have power. Right. However, if I have to vote
Speaker 4: the person that has actually put their money where their
Speaker 4: mouth is. If you really want to know, is Jill Stein.
Speaker 4: Have you heard of her? I have Jill Stein is.
Speaker 4: She's a doctor. She found out about her because I'm
Speaker 4: originally from Saint Louis and she was at a protest,
Speaker 4: a pro Palestine protest on a campus in Saint Louis,
Speaker 4: and she got arrested. She's Jewish. She is a very
Speaker 4: strong Jewish woman. Does not support the state of Israel.
Speaker 2: She said.
Speaker 4: The first thing she would do if she were elected
Speaker 4: is she would create an arms embargo, which is what
Speaker 4: we need. We need so much more than a ceasefire.
Speaker 4: We need an arms embargo. We need money to come
Speaker 4: back into America. You know, while we're sending billions and
Speaker 4: billions and billions of dollars to Ukraine and Israel. How
Speaker 4: much does food cost here? How much does our rent
Speaker 4: cost here? Things are skyrocketing here? Why aren't we taking
Speaker 4: you want to talk about like benefiting us, We're not
Speaker 4: taking care of us because all our money is going
Speaker 4: over there. It's another reason to make sure that we
Speaker 4: don't offer felicity aside from the fact that you're just
Speaker 4: killing people. You me, you are responsible for this, you know,
Speaker 4: with our tax dollars, and we're not giving it back
Speaker 4: to ourselves. We're giving it to the people who were
Speaker 4: murdering my brothers and sisters. So she is an alternative
Speaker 4: that feels like she's actually putting her money where her
Speaker 4: mouth is. And again, do we just live with this
Speaker 4: and go what are we going to do? Like it's
Speaker 4: not like she's gonna win, it's a throwaway vote. Those
Speaker 4: are really great points to keep us under the thumb
Speaker 4: of this matrix that we live in.
Speaker 3: So one thing that you said that is an absolute,
Speaker 3: almost without equivocation. Almost every system in our country, from
Speaker 3: its foundation right was not designed to benefit us when they.
Speaker 2: Wrote those beautiful words.
Speaker 3: No, we weren't considered human beings here, specifically rams us
Speaker 3: in myself and our great great grandfathers and grandmothers. So yes,
Speaker 3: I've seen these words before and they ring true. These
Speaker 3: systems are working exactly the way that they were designed
Speaker 3: to and that is not to benefit us in any way. However,
Speaker 3: the problem that we are kind of faced with is
Speaker 3: not even the what because what you said we should do.
Speaker 3: I agree with the exception of doctor Stein, and this
Speaker 3: is why in a binary system, in a two party system,
Speaker 3: which is kind of the problem, not kind of the
Speaker 3: two party system is the problem.
Speaker 2: It's binary.
Speaker 3: You have to pick this one or that one, even
Speaker 3: if you don't think either of them is great, one
Speaker 3: of them will prevail. And the problem is we got
Speaker 3: fifty days or something like that where the rights that
Speaker 3: we have might not exist anymore. And I think people
Speaker 3: think that rings us hyperbole, but Ramses and I have
Speaker 3: actually had time to read most of those nine hundred pages,
Speaker 3: and it's not The ability to elect again might not exist,
Speaker 3: The ability to protest could get you not just arrested,
Speaker 3: but unalived.
Speaker 2: I think the problem is we've said the lesser of two.
Speaker 3: Evil things too many times, so it's kind of oh,
Speaker 3: this is it's it's exactly what you said.
Speaker 2: It's manipulation.
Speaker 3: This is how we keep them in this system going
Speaker 3: the exact way that it's been going forever. I think
Speaker 3: on November seventh, we should start organizing to try to
Speaker 3: change the entire system, cause we don't often get to
Speaker 3: celebrate who we're voting for for president. It's almost begrudging, like,
Speaker 3: oh man, I gotta, I gotta, especially the last three elections,
Speaker 3: I gotta make sure that Donald Trump isn't the president.
Speaker 2: It's how it's felt.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's always your voting against somebody, not for somebody.
Speaker 3: So again there's multiple things to reconcile here, Ramses and
Speaker 3: I have seen me shed tears about voting for Barack
Speaker 3: Obama because when my mother became of age to vote,
Speaker 3: women couldn't. So once again, the perfect candidate kind of
Speaker 3: doesn't exist. And like you, the people that fight with
Speaker 3: people they care about for people they've never met that
Speaker 3: don't care about them personally, I think is insane. I
Speaker 3: don't love any presidential candidate enough to offend or disrespect
Speaker 3: someone that I care about, So I would never fight
Speaker 3: you to support any candidate, because you're someone that I
Speaker 3: love and care about. But I think in the amount
Speaker 3: of time that we have left, we need to be
Speaker 3: able to ensure that we can get to the work
Speaker 3: of breaking the system and not wait until the next
Speaker 3: presidential election to start having the conversation about how, because
Speaker 3: I agree with ninety nine percent of what you said,
Speaker 3: I just don't know if that how can be accomplished
Speaker 3: in enough time for us to even be able to
Speaker 3: complete that work. Because there's a gentleman saying he's going
Speaker 3: to be a dictator on day one, who I know
Speaker 3: doesn't care about your people or mine and would have
Speaker 3: women and people of color with no rights in this
Speaker 3: country moving forward, and that's a way scarier truth than
Speaker 3: that's at least being able to continue to work on
Speaker 3: what the right solution is.
Speaker 1: No, I don't want there to be that to be
Speaker 1: the last word. So in terms of what people can do,
Speaker 1: what people should do, what people should consider. Take the
Speaker 1: last thirty seconds. I'm sorry, it's show a lot of pressure.
Speaker 1: Just yeah, we'll come back on the black information and work.
Speaker 1: We'll have a longer conversation, but your thoughts.
Speaker 4: Just know that the Arab American presence, I mean, we
Speaker 4: will not vote for somebody that is complicit in the
Speaker 4: genocide of our brothers and sisters, and to ask for
Speaker 4: that is incredibly hurtful.
Speaker 2: What about for.
Speaker 1: People who might not be a part of that community,
Speaker 1: What would you ask of us.
Speaker 4: To understand that having it the way that even voting
Speaker 4: for Kamala is a privilege where certain privileges are thought
Speaker 4: over other privileges, like the privileges of the people here
Speaker 4: are being trumped over the privileges of the people that
Speaker 4: we are genociding over there. And that's the reality.
Speaker 1: Okay. Well, like I said, we're going to have to
Speaker 1: have the rest of this conversation on the Black Information Network, So.
Speaker 2: If you like, check out.
Speaker 1: Our show Black Information Network Daily Podcast. In the meantime,
Speaker 1: I'd like to thank you, thank you for coming onto
Speaker 1: the show. Once again, our guest has ben Suzanne Awslime.
Speaker 1: Please follow her social media at the Acturvist. She has
Speaker 1: some really potent, insightful things to share every day. We
Speaker 1: learn a lot from her and.
Speaker 2: You can too.
Speaker 1: You can follow us on all social media at Civic Cipher.
Speaker 1: I am your host Ramsay's job.
Speaker 3: I am q Ward on all socials as well.
Speaker 1: And for anything else at the website Civiccipher dot com.
Speaker 1: And until next week you'll peace