Broadcasting from the Hip Hop Weekly Studios. I'd like to welcome you to another episode of Civic Cipher, where our mission is to foster allyship empathy and understanding. I'm your host, Rams' job. He is Rams this job, I am q Ward. You are tuned in the Civic Cipher, Yes you are, and we have some more stuff for you to stick around
for per usual. You know, there's a lot of things going on in the world of politics, and recently we came across social media posts from one of the great thinkers and great social media activists of our time, Kasim Rashid, and he gave us a I guess a crash course in voter suppression. And because we are going into again a voting season, it's high time that we did a review using his frame of reference. You know, he is
a lawyer. He hasn't been a guest on this show, and for those that follow him on social media, you know he's a great a liberal mind of the day. And we're also going to spend the second part of the show discussing a police shooting, a police killing of a woman who was suffering through a mental health crisis.
A lot of times on this show, you know, people will push back and say all these awful things about you know, black people not you know, listening to the police, and black people being at odds with the police and so forth. And we've been, of course trying to make a case that policing as it is done is wrong and it doesn't necessarily serve the good of you know, the people that call the police. Now, granted, there are
obviously some instances where that does work. But today we're going to cite an example of an Asian woman who was having a mental health crisis. She lost her life at the hands of police, and you will be able to see the missteps and the broken process that police have to go through. It often costs people that lives. But before we get there, let's start off on a high with some Ebony excellence.
Shall we?
I think we shall.
This week's Ebeny Excellence sponsored by Actively Black. There is greatness in our DNA. Visit actively black dot com. This is from Time and Time for Kids reveals the twenty twenty four Kid of the Year, recognizing one exceptional young person and five honorees giving hope for the future. This year's recipient is fifteen year old scientist Heman Biquel from Fairfax and forgive me if I didn't pronounce your name correctly,
King from Fairfax, Virginia. He is recognized for developing an affordable, compound based bar of soap that could, in the future be a new and more accessible way to deliver medication to treat skin cancers, including melanoma. Becho tells Time, quote, I'm really passionate about skin cancer research, whether it's my own research or what's happening in the field. It's absolutely incredible to think that one day my bar of soap will be able to make a direct impact on someone
else's life. That's the reason I started this all in the first place. And quote. To select the twenty twenty four Kid of the Year, Time solicited nominations from young leaders who are making admirable contributions in a range of fields including social justice, science and business. Editors and writers combed through submissions and conducted research to identify standout kids in the US ages eight to sixteen. Then, as part of the selection process, a team of Time for Kids
reporters way in on the finalist. The twenty twenty four Kids of the Year package appears in the August twenty sixth issue of Time, available on newsstands on Friday, August sixteen.
Yeah, so I thought that was fantastic that actually showed up in our group chat and times honoring him for his contributions. And we need to fall in line and join the course.
Science is after name at fifteen is pretty cool there, it.
Is man, all right. So we've been having some conversations. There's a lot of people that feel like doesn't matter what they do. Their vote doesn't count for some people that live in deeply read or deeply blue states, and they feel the opposite of that. That feeling is based somewhat in reality. You know, they should still vote because there is a popular vote, and without participating, nothing changes. Even if you're just kind of a drop in the sea,
you still you still matter, right. But I understand some people's reluctance to get out and vote because they feel like whatever outcomes based on where they live will be shaped whether or not they participate. They should still vote in local elections, you know, so forth and so on. But I would argue that if your vote really didn't matter, if it really didn't count, especially for people in swing states, especially for black people, that you know black men have
been saying this. I've heard this quite a bit. You know, your vote doesn't really count. I don't know how this narrative persists, but it's still around or people that still feel this way. If your vote didn't count, then people wouldn't be working so hard to suppress it to keep you from voting in the first place. Your vote does count. It doesn't matter who you are, even if, again you just are one of the numbers in the popular vote category.
That's a historical record of what the country actually wanted, and people can use that record to make a case for the following administration. Right, Donald Trump never won the popular vote, and that narrative has helped people that are more progressive minded show that the American people truly, sincerely want something other than what Donald Trump has to offer.
And there is a scientific, numeric based testament to that because of all the people that voted, even in the hard read hard blue states, because that popular vote indeed shows what the country wants. We're going to talk about voter suppression initiatives today so that you're aware of how they look and so you're aware of that they exist. You know, for a long time in this country for the folks that don't know black people were not able
to vote. I remember doctor Westernberg, a contributor to the show, told us about a time that she was not able to vote. Q of course, famously has shared a story about his mother not being able to vote until she was when.
I don't remember the age she was, when she was in college and law was passed, but when she became of age to vote, it still wasn't legally for women to vote yet.
Yeah, exactly, black women to vote because black women were the last group of people to be able to vote in this country. These voter suppression initiatives have been things that Black people have fought against since we were granted access to the polls. Now, some of them are not
called the same things that they were. You know, grandfather was it the grandfather clauses for taxes or for polls, rather saying that you could not vote an election if your grandfather didn't vote, meaning that all the newly freed slaves their grandfathers were en slaves, so.
They couldn't you can never vote, as what they're what they were trying to right.
And then you know, obviously with you not voting, your grandkids would not be able to vote. Of course, ID laws, voter tests, you know, things like this, to our poll tests, poll taxes, all these things have been ill you know, made illegal here and there. But what happens is, and this is almost exclusively a conservative push, they just reinvent it in a new way to where it's barely legal. Again.
You and I spoke about this last week, how things like this and the lack of a call to come out to vote tend to only happen in conservative states, where it should mean something that they're not even asking people to vote. It's like they know the more people that vote, the less likely they are to remain in power. So these examples of voter suppression and the lack of there really being anyone insisting you come out to vote in the first place is a specifically conservative issue, right.
And I'm glad you brought that up, because that's at that point is well made. The more people that vote in elections in this country, the more liberal the turnout tends to be. The less people that vote, the more conservative the turnout to the outcomes tend to be.
Or it's something last week and states were our last president won in that election that he won there were states when less than sixty percent of people registered to vote actually cast a vote.
Yeah. Yeah, And so a lack of voter engagement, a lack of voter enthusiasm, I shouldn't say enthusiasm, but a lack of voter showing up at the most, lack of voter turnout, that's the word I'm looking for, thank you. A lack of voter or a decrease in voter turnout favors conservative outcomes. And what that is a testament to is the fact that conservative people believe that their vote
will shape outcomes, so cast it. Yeah, and liberal minded people they are perhaps a little bit more disconnected from the outcomes. And oftentimes liberal minded people will show up at the polls because they know that they that the conservative people are showing up.
Do you think they're disconnected from the outcomes or is it more of what you said before, like voter apathy, My vote doesn't count, maybe I don't go. Yeah, So maybe it's that I think the outcomes may be why they think their vote doesn't count, Like, hey, I've been voting all these years and the outcomes are still not in my favor.
That's that's certainly plausible. And would I would go as far as to say that that's that's likely in certain certainly a lot of cases, because you know the conversations that we're privy to, we hear things like that. But the fact is is that there are people who either
I guess are how would I say this? There are people who are liberal minded who feel like everything is going to be okay, and they're not aware of the conservative push and the conservative strategizing and the conservative organizing that takes place. So whether or not they vote, their life stays the same and they don't notice the subtle changes over the years, and it's going to be fine.
But if they were to cast a vote, it would be for liberal policies and liberal outcomes, right or as you mentioned, there are people who feel like, no matter what, I'm forgotten, I'm left out, so let me not vote. Even though I feel this way. Conservative people don't have to ruffle, they don't have to go through any of this stuff. There's no back and forth. They're going to vote no matter what. And that's why when voter turnout
is low, conservatives tend to shape the outcomes. When voter turnout is high, more liberal minded and more progressive people tend to shape the outcomes. So what historically has taken place is these initiatives to try to suppress the overall vote and in particular votes that would likely be cast
for liberal progressive candidates. So these are efforts historically, more often than not overwhelmingly so by conservative Republicans to disenfranchise the vote of people who would otherwise elect again liberal or conservative politicians. One of them is forcing black people to wait twice as long as white people to vote.
And this could be intentionally like at a polling place, or more likely because that you can get caught up in that sort of thing, but more likely, what it is is they will place pole locations in white neighborhoods, and they'll put like one or two in black neighborhoods, so the lines are longer there to discourage people from voting.
Yeah, less places to vote for higher concentrations of black people, or counties that have historical, historically higher percentage of minority people that live there, they will give you less places to vote, which will lead to you being in line much longer exactly.
So again, these are voter suppression initiatives. They take place, and technically speaking, they are legal, but we need to be aware of them so that we right now, conservative people, they're very well organized, credit where it's due and where they are in positions of power, they can stack the deck so that the all the American citizens who deserve to get out there and vote don't have the same equal access. And these are again known as voter suppression initiatives.
It's very sneaky and very tricky, and of course they'll say no, there's more people that turn out here and then over there, But historically it has been so because of these very things, right, So they'll always have a narrative to support it, but the truth of the matter is what it is. Next up requiring a new ID even after an idea was confirmed at voter registration, So once you've registered to vote, now you need another idea. And this is just a way to just kind of
thin the herd a little bit. Another one is banning IDs disproportionately used by black voters. So this can be so let's say some states you need a driver's license and other places you can just have a regular idea because black people don't have as many cars or whatever. So even though they're both state issued ideas, only the driver's license will grant you access to the polls. Again, that disenfranchises poor people, which often is overrepresent Black people
are overrepresented in poor people numbers and so forth. So this is another one, as I mentioned before, closing polling locations in black neighborhoods. So this will be like black neighborhoods, the polls have different hours of operation, and again it's
just a little bit more difficult. That's the thing that technically is legal, and you need a lot of examples of these, and like these huge organizations like the NAACP or the Equal Justice Initiative or the Urban League or whatever to put together a case to go in ensue a county or a state or a city or whatever
that is disenfranchising these voters. But if you on the ground are there, you have to be prepared and know about this and also be prepared to support people in your communities around the country that this show is on in obviously big cities around the country, but it's also in smaller cities where these things can fly under the radar more easily. And our point today is to try to let everyone know what to look out for, what to be prepared for. So that your voids your votes
can count. We've discussed on the show racial jerrymandering that disproportionately represents white voters over non white voters. Jerrymandering is a thing that has happened on both sides of the political aisle, but it is overwhelmingly so a tactic used by Republicans on the right. Democrats are not blameless. It is a political thing that people do. But when Republicans do it, black people are disenfranchised, and that is called
voter suppression. Next up, we're talking about, oh, police targeting and charging black people at higher rates, which further disenfranchises them.
That's another example of this whole system doesn't serve me anyway. So I'm not even going to participate here you go.
Yeah, Now, if the police charge you and disenfranchise you, let's say you're arrested and you can't make it to the polls or you're whatever. That's one thing and that I don't imagine that is something that is well established in terms of strategy. It could be in smaller cities and towns. You know, there's a party, you know, for I don't know, a Barack Obama party or a Kamala Harris Party, right, and the police come and arrest everybody before the polls open, so now they can't vote. Right.
These are things that I could definitely see happening in those little, small, sundown towns or whatever around the country. But I think more importantly, and we might actually double back on this, when people are arrested, and when you look at the entirety of the car sool system and people end up in prison with felonies and they can't vote, you have not insignificant amount of people in a very specific population segment that are permanently disenfranchised from participating in
the elections. Next up, longer prison sentences for Black Americans, blocking them from participating in more elections, prison gerrymandering, or black incarcerated people are denied voting but counted for redistricting, meaning that it's basically you are It's like the three fists compromise all over again. You're three fists of a
person because you're in prison. Next up, requiring formally incarcerated people to pay court fees before voting, meaning that if you have like leans or judgments that you need to pay off before you're able to vote. You can look at the numbers and say, you know what, seventy percent of black people would fall under this thirty percent of white people. That gets us a positive of you know, plus forty or minus forty percent, I guess technically, of
black people participating in this election, let's do it. And then of course they can say no, we did it to everyone. But the data shows that it particularly disenfranchises black voters more than white requiring people to take off work and lose money just to vote.
And this one is the most obvious right. People who have less money and less resources, have less autonomy and can less afford to lose their jobs, so they won't even take that risk. And you know, pose that close at an hour that's far too early for you to get off work and then go vote. And if you don't have a workplace that honors your civic duty, your right to go and vote, they don't. I don't know this for sure, but I'm guessing all places of business don't have to give you it's the day off or
the time to go do so. So that's definitely something that would stand in the way of you know, those who are most affected by growing up and communit that are underserved.
Absolutely another one banning Sunday souls to the polls early voting, which targets black voters. This one is kind of near and dear to our hearts here because we've covered this before. When black people would organize to go and vote on Sundays. You know, black people, especially black people that go to church, they would organize in the church. Okay, next Sunday, after church, we're going to go to the polls. Well, what did Georgia do in response to that? Close the polls on Sundays? Right,
So these are examples and it was specific. It was just for that, like right when it was announce then, yeah, so it's just to disenfranchise black folks running out quote unquote voter registration or ballot forms. This is something that is you know, there's lots of different ways to disenfranchise black the black vote and to create this voter suppression,
purging voters are requiring constant re registration. This is something you know, some people that vote frequently vote every two years, and you have a lot of days, seven hundred plus days in between voting, and they're now not a life that takes place. They now have states where other citizens can unregister other citizens from voting exactly, which should sound crazy saying, but here we are refusing to accommodate non
English speaking voters. So this is something that you know, there are people who live in this country and don't speak the language, and it has always been in that case, from Germans, from Irish, from French, Spanish yep, citizens yep. And they've come here and not spoken the language, but they are still subject to the forces political forces of this country. And if they are citizens, they do deserve
the right to vote. And now that we're talking about people who speak Spanish, these people can be easily disenfranchised because they don't because non English speakers not accommodated, and historically, UH, they tend to be associated with more liberal votings. Denying curbside voting for people with disabilities. This is another thing. People with disabilities tend to overwhelmingly UH cast their vote
in a toward toward more liberal candidates. Denying absentee or mail in ballot voting, especially for the elderly, military, UH and indigen and requiring a home address, disenfranchising around six hundred thousand homeless Americans, who again are also subject to the forces political forces in this country. Partisan poll workers is another thing. How do you avoid that? It's just something to be aware of.
I don't know that partisan partisan poll workers is a tricky one because yeah, if we're all about one side in this part of town, we ain't too welcome into.
Those Yeah, and then it may might feel them yeah.
Yeah.
And then the last few here inadequate or closed down polling locations on Native American lands. That's a big one in places like.
Hundreds of miles between polling locations and Native American exact.
Territory, changing polling locations without proper advanced notice, limiting public transportation on election day, and arbitrary or subjective signature verification requirements. And then Cosum goes on to say, I can go on. But the point is none of the above is hypothetical. All of it is real and happening as we speak. Despite it, BIPOC voters are organizing and winning elections. But imagine what would happen if these barriers to free and
fair voting were removed. America would change forever. And this has been something that has been stated before that if everyone participated in every election, if it was ever a national holiday, or if you know, Puerto Rico and you
DC were granted statehood or whatever. More people participating in this process, this country would be shaped in such a way to where all of us treat each other better, as opposed to some of us get more money and blame it on work ethic, as opposed to fortunate circumstances