Civic Cipher 112120 ft. Ramses Ja & Tessa Farrell

conversation that I've been able to give to it. And that is who we are relative to each other on the other side of what I believe is the most traumatic election that we've had to endure, most traumatic couple of elections for that matter, and then the four years that we lived under President Trump. Joining me today once again is Tessa Farrell. She's been on the show before. Thank you again for coming back. And Tessa is a

longtime activist slash community organizer, slash do gooder. I'm always in the fight for justice, particularly for black and brown folks. She's all about criminal justice reform, on and on and on the list goes on, and certainly a very much a celebrated advocate of issues that I think I'm safe in saying that they may not affect you directly, but they affect you, know, your human family. And so I I thought that she was going to be somebody to

help kind of balance out this conversation. But also, you know, I'm I'm aware that you are able to maneuver in circles where people can perhaps speak more freely because of your lack of melanie, where someone may not explain their passion for voting for Donald Trump around someone like me who's well melanated. When they're around you, they might feel like they can get that off. And so perhaps you

might have a little bit more insight. And again I appreciate you coming by, and again I think it's important for us to begin to have the conversation how do things look moving forward? So I want to start by saying, recently on the show, I mentioned that, oh, rather, we discussed blocking folks from your social media who don't subscribe to the same police philosophy. You know, my whole life, I've voted as a Democrat. I typically vote down ballot,

all blue, despite my Compton roots. And the reason for that is not because of my blackness, not because I'm not a free thinker, not because I'm not someone who is unable to be critical of the Democratic Party. The reason for that is because I'm a human being above all else. First, and foremost. The reason for that is because I find myself being empathetic, being kind, leading with love ten times out of ten, if and where it's possible.

And I believe that not in philosophy necessarily, but in practice, the Democratic Party and largely the Democratic ticket, falls closer in line with my personal morality than does the Republican ticket. I understand that in theory, based on God and country and all these noble ideas that you know, the Republicans theoretically could hold a moral high ground or something like that in the right person's mind, who you know, just looks at the philosophy and not really the practice. You know,

they don't, you know, account for the voter suppression. They don't account for you know, it's so funny when you think about the Republican Party being the party about God and Bible and stuff like that, and largely this party backs initiatives and supports practices that it'd be very difficult for me to assume that Jesus Christ himself would be

a person championing the guns and you know whatever. You know, it really doesn't matter, because you know, we're not here to pick apart that we're here to discuss the healing aspect of it. But I will say that my morality again fallows more in line with what I feel the Democrats represent. Again, it's not a perfect match, but it's a two party system, and consistently they're the guys who just have a little bit more love in their language. Think Bernie Sanders versus a Donald Trump. You know, it's

it's plain to see. And then with Donald Trump, these folks have moved even further away from that God and country sort of a thing. They can elevate this man and celebrate this man who's a known cheater, just an exceptionally a moral human being prior to even being made president. And then exactly and then became more there there were more scandals, more you know, lies, of course, is a

pathological liar. And then and you know, these are things that you know, anybody would have to admit, provided that they haven't joined the cult. If you will the Trump cult, you know, you have to admit that they are beyond inconsistencies.

They're outright lives right, just a person that makes up stuff on the fly and is very damaging and has no accountability for himself, and so hard to imagine Jesus himself standing next to someone like that, and it's a little bit easier to see Jesus standing next to pretty much anybody you know in the same And a lot of folks don't know this. You know, there's a lot of folks like me who really feel like trump Ism

is a modern incarnation of Nazism. It's and and then there's there's a little bit of that confederacysm if you will, there as well, sure a separate country, super right, supernationalist. And you know, the lines follow racial lines. You know, there are people who are poor or otherwise not rich that are somehow afraid of being taxed like they are rich. And it's the thinnest argument that you know, I can imagine.

But you know, some folks, you know, they can't see the forest from the trees, in my opinion, and this is why I it is very difficult for me to ever even imagine aligning myself with someone with a party rather who you know feels that way. Now, with that said, have you, Tessa encountered anything that really speaks to the divide that we're dealing with right now after this selection?

Was my argument in that moment, you have to absolutely vote with your morality, with your conscious, with your being. You have to vote with the most at risk marginalized

people in mind. And I feel like, particularly as a white person showing up to the poles, you have to do that because that vote carries weight, if not but for yourself, but all of these other people more directly affected, many of who may not have the will or desire to show up at the will of desire or capacity ability to show up to these poles for a multitude of reasons what have you, And it just turned into a very chaotic.

redefine racism for their own purposes. So even if you don't identify or acknowledge the racism that has flown from the mouth of uh Donald Trump, I would I would imagine that you would still be able to empathize with black people, black communities, brown people, Muslim people. You know, there's a lot of pain and a lot of trauma that these communities have endured under this president. People not

feeling safe. You know. It went from the dreamers, to the kids in the cages, to the you know, it started to build the wall, you know, and particularly with my Hispanic brothers and sisters, you know, to know that they've had a target on their back under this presidency.

You know, whether or not I agreed that Donald Trump was being racist, I could acknowledge that those communities were being traumatized under this presidency, and the empathy that exists within me would not allow me to vote cast a ballot in a manner that would allow that trauma to continue in those brown communities that I'm watching my Hispanic

brothers and sisters endure. And that's the part that I think makes so much of these these Trump votes so hurtful, because folks are able to say, like, you're the person that you went to brunch with, Well, I voted for economic reasons, even though this is not a way healthy man, even though I'm assuming it has something to do with Biden's proposed tax plan that taxes the four hundred thousand and first dollar, not anything below four hundred thousand dollars,

and so anyone making less than that is not affected by this plane at all. So I'm assuming he doesn't make four hundred thousand dollars a year, but would vote for that when there are actual people I'm assuming in his life who might be further traumatized with another four years of a Trump presidency and the fact that a lot of I mean, let's be honest, white males. If you look at the voting history of white males, a lot of times, it's very easy for white males to

turn a blind eye to that. And these are our brothers, and it feels very hurtful to endure that election after election. And you know, when I did have the other episode, I did make sure to mention that I understand, not directly, but I can allow the human in me can allow for there to be a separate argument that I don't

agree with. But since you know, these folks on the other side have had a different experience and therefore have a different value system, I can allow for that and understand that it could exist up to the point where it has a harmful effect on other people. In other words, I'll speak plainly. If a person is a Republican and they vote God and country, however misguided they are in

those votes. Again, I don't believe that Jesus Christ would have anything to do with what the Republican Party actually does, not what they stand for in theory, but what they actually do. Again with voter suppression, again with you know, all the scandals that we've seen in the White House. You know, this is supposed to be the upright, you know, conservative, you know, honorable party. And you know, I have not seen that in my adult life, and I've certainly seen it,

you know, smeared even further under a Trump presidency. But you know the theory of that party, I can understand a person saying these ideas and ideals aligned with my values, and I would like to cast my vote in this direction. And I do want to say this. I applaud many Conservatives who this past election decided that they were going

to vote for decency. They were going to vote for their brothers and their sisters who might not worship the way that they do, who might not have the same stamp on their birth certificate, but are still good people and are still entitled to a life free of terror, a life with dignity, a life with comfort and happiness, you know, and and folks that have been able to come out of their own circle and say, you know, I will not cast my vote to support this horrible

person a second time. And so I do applaud those folks. And again I do understand how folks could subscribe with the party that most closely aligns with their beliefs. But this past election is particularly harmful to us because Donald Trump was elected, and we knew what was going to happen when he got elected, and then he did way more crazy stuff than we ever expected. Every day, every day, almost it was a new thing. Was getting arrested, he's

saying something, He's insulting countries, insulting people from country. He's just doing every single day. He's like that, this guy got nothing right. You know. I think he did some criminal justice stuff with Kim Kardashian. But my belief is that there was an opportunity for Donald Trump to sit down at the table with Kim Kardashian. That's it. You know, if it didn't help Donald Trump and the optics around

Donald Trump and Donald Trump wouldn't have done it. And if that that's all that, I'm sorry is not enough because Black people are not just in jail. We actually live out in the real world too, and we have to encounter all these Nazi flags excuse me, Trump flags, excuse me, oh wait, I guess it doesn't matter against them exactly exactly, and and empowering people who have the worst, uh,

who are the worst of us. And so I think it's important to say here and now that people who say to their friends to themselves, I voted for Donald Trump because Donald Trump is blah blah blah, I own a business, I'm a Christian, whatever reason that you've invented to vote for this man a second time. You know, there's seventy million of these people here.

And so I think that when folks say a vote for Donald Trump is a vote for racism, that those Trump votes should really begin to check how they feel now of the time. I recognize it's extremely important to have forgiveness built into the conversation. So there are people who have done racist things, said racist things, and have been able to be educated and reformed because they know in their heart of hearts that they don't want to be this, They don't want to do this. They may

not be aware of it when it's happening. They may be shortsighted. They may make a vote, cast a vote

out of fear. You know. I recognize that a lot of Christian, straight white males feel like they're under attack from all sides, from all people, and they feel like they have the world at their feet, and a lot of them do and a lot of them don't, and they look around and they say, Man, I really wish I had some of that white privilege that everyone's always saying I got, because I'm broke and I can't seem

to get a leg up in life. And I recognize that, you know, so again it's always important to have forgiveness built into the conversation. But you know, while we're having this part of the conversation, and before we move to the part of the conversation, that I need to revisit about those of us who are walking away feeling victorious after this past election, how we're going to create a space for us all to sit at the same table.

While I'm talking to those Republican Trump votes, I think it's important has to say you really need to come to terms with that statement and not dismiss it. A vote for Donald Trump was a vote for racism. It was a vote for xenophobia, a vote for sexism. Imagine all the people who've been hurt by maybe not Donald Trump directly, but by people who believe that Donald Trump, if Donald Trump does something, that it's okay, you know.

Imagine all the women who've been fondled and groped and molested and raped, and then this man gets to say and do all of these horrible things and get elected president.

That is you strengthening and emboldening the most racist, the most sexist, the most harmful, the most horrible ideas in this country. And there's seventy million of you that could not look past your own four walls to see that we share this planet, the whole planet, not just with each other. You know, science is real, the Earth is dying, we're killing it. We got to do something about you

know what I mean? And I think that it's very important to have a moment of reflection, and I know that it's very difficult to say to yourself, I'm racist for having voted for Donald Trump. But I do think that if you have that conversation with yourself, if you recognize that that's exactly what he stood for. He divided and divided and further divided and further divided from the moment he announced his campaign, not only his political opponents,

but he did it with the country. He made sure to keep that alt right on his right hand the whole time, and nobody else likes them except for him and people that are like him. You cast a vote for Donald Trump, understand that you cast a vote the same way that the Ku Klux Klan votes. And that's something that you have to sit with before anything else. No one stole anything from you. It is human nature to cooperate. It is human nature to get along with each other, to find a way to be to live

in harmony. Doesn't always work. History is filled with examples of that not working. You know, there's plenty of wars if you want to cite those, But for the most part, our day to day lives, we get along fine. And that's one of the great things about this country is that there's so many cities, huge cities full of all different kinds of people, Asian people, Native American people, people from all kinds of places in the world that you never even heard of, getting along swimmingly, and your vote

was a vote against human nature. So again, that's the starting point. You don't have to outwardly ever say I'm racist. But if you start there, then I think think that you can begin to unpack your fears. You can begin to unpack the things that you have in place to insulate yourself from that truth. And perhaps once you've done that, you can start to build a bridge back over here with the rest of humanity who miss you and we love you.

you would go and try to help this person. Absolutely, you wouldn't ask what color is this person, what faith is this person? Is this person believed this way or that way? But you would see a human being in distress, and the part of you that's most basic, that knows that trauma is not good, and the part of you that compels you to help that person. I think that that's rooted in what I like to call love. You know, that's the thing that the tithe that binds, the thing

that makes us social. We're not jaguars. We just come together the mate and then we go back in our own little corner. We're humans. We live our whole lives with each other. It is the nature of human beings to get along. And so I think that while we certainly have to have a conversation about that block button, because I did upset a lot of folks when I say, yeah, I fired a block button off, no, I think that a little bit agreement, a little bit more context would

make it make sense. And so yes, but you know, explain, explain how you feel about this.

person I'm going to help? And I think that's where I'm quick to want to in the nature of the analogy here, maybe pull up my little footbridge because that's a you know, or light that match, because it doesn't feel like it's we're watching in real time not be extended with the same consideration. And I don't know what happens in the nature of humanity, in the nature of love,

where that changes. And I think within my whiteness, it's a responsibility that I have to find out because typically white people that are as we're watching in these videos or what I'm you know, referencing or overlooking, stepping over walking away creating the harm or But also it's it's that very component that makes me not want to consider it at all, because these people have shown who they are, these people have shown their true colors, and it's really

hard for me to want to extend some level of compassion or forgiveness, which also I recognize as I say that sounds a lot like privilege, because that's my responsibility, that that's the role that I play. I have to be prepared for those conversations because that's how we make change. But also a part of me lies on the border of is that change in some respects possible because we're all watching more or less the same news unfold, depending upon what news stations you follow or how you perceive

that news coverage. But we're basically watching the same things unfold or are experiencing similar things in that capacity, and then are left to try to educate people that have witnessed the same thing that I have, Right, And it's it at a certain point, it's like you you already see it, you already know it, We're already watching the same thing. How much education can be done past a certain point? If you can watch all of that and somehow still defend it to me, it kind of says

your mind's made up. Yeah, And in like the moment I was having, you know, back to the breakfast I was at, the brunch I was at, you know, this gentleman was then quick to say he wanted to have a conversation and he finds that it's in moments like these where he's most educated. But I'm immediately met with the fan in that moment, because I'm like, it shouldn't take you voting for Trump or antagonizing someone or you know, siding with these, with these, with this philosophy, with this.

whatever the case is. In most cases when I'm dealing with folks, and you know, I have a good amount of folks that I don't know on social media, just because the social media algorithms have put a lot of folks in my crosshairs. I don't really know these people, and once they get to talking crazy, that's a crazy person. You know, I'm not going to pay no attention to

them anymore. Now pay attention to anybody else crazy. I like to pay attention to the things that make me happy, that reflect my morality, that reflect you know, my aspirations, my goals, my belief system. And when someone is doing you know, posting some stuff on their social media and it's an individual, for me to block that individual is easy. You know, if I'm dealing with in twenty thirty people,

that block button all day. But when I'm dealing with seventy million people, I believe that perhaps a more inclusive approach is warranted because it is not consistent with that same morality that compels me to cast a vote for Joe Biden to just dismiss the feelings, the whatever of

seventy million people. Now that's not to say that they're right, you know, it's either different, and in some areas, perhaps a little bit more education based in fact, would get a good number of those folks out of their own echo chambers, out of this vicious cycle that they're in. That to us looks like racism, because that's what it is. It looks like, you know, just an indoctrination of fear. And you know, I've never I've never heard a group of people complain about jobs so much like they are

like gold bars. It's the wildest thing. And then they blame everyone else in the world for the lack of jobs, when it is the nature of capitalism for there to be unemployment. At one unemployment, wages go up. It's a fact. If everyone has a job and you go and ask for more money or say you're going to quit, well there's no one else that can do your job, so they have to pay you more money. So across the board,

wages go up, which is death to capitalism. Capitalism compels the society to squeeze every single dollar out of every single unit of labor possible. Right, So the nature of the system in which we live ensures that there will always be unemployment. And because people are not as educated as I believe we all should be. I even could stand to be more educated on a number of things.

So I'm not pointing fingers, I'm just saying all of us could use a little more insight the way that we value jobs, and the way that we deal with jobs is so backwards and asinine, especially on that side. And then these folks try to say that, you know, on the left, people are lazy, people are getting a free ride. And it's the wildest part about this, and this is one of the I mean, we could just debate the two parties all the way, you know, down the line, and I don't want to do that, but

I will finish my thought here. Wealthy landowners have managed to convince these folks that Mexican people are coming for their jobs. Once upon a time they convinced these folks that black people were coming for their jobs. These newly freed slaves are going to drive down wages, and that could created a lot of resentment between poor white people and black people, who all of them were poor, and

that created a system that we still endure today. And it's wealth that shapes these these outcomes and shapes these realities or the disproportionate distribution of wealth. And the craziest thing about it is no one can see past the trees. They can't see the forest from the trees, because the truth is, Mexicans are not coming for anybody's jobs. Robots computers are coming for everybody's job, and then what do

you end up with? You end up at least having the conversations that Bernie Sanders or that sort of candidate has been trying to have, which is okay, universal basic income, and people are so stuck on the idea, Well, I got to get up, go work eight hours a day, put in my forty hours a week, go home, get my check. And if I go to school and I do this and I do that for this many years

and I will have had a good life. Well what if there was a separate reality that could come into manifestation where only half the people worked half the time, right, you know? Or all the people worked half the time. You know what if there were four hour workdays, four days a week, and all these machines and robots took over the rest of it, and there was a universal basic income to supplement your income. That means that we've created a labor force. And you know, the same way

we don't employ horses. That's what's going to happen to human labor. If you drive for a living, a drone is going to take your job. Nothing you can do about it. It's coming. And that's millions of jobs off the bat everything and this again, Google is free. But you do recognize that if this this group is fighting with this group, and they're preoccupied with fighting each other, then no one's paying attention to the planet. No one's paying attention to the future that is coming to get

us all, you know. And everyone's fighting for what they believe are the leftover scraps from this massive robbery from the middle class and poor people. And it's and thus is the nature of capitalism. And so you know, I again, I don't want to spend too much time unpacking the fundamentals. This is supposed to be an episode about healing, but it does.

trace the rits back to a sleigh Field. You'd be hard pressed to find anything that doesn't, you know, unless you're listening to like Beethoven or something like that. And then it's a little bit more indirect. It's only because of the absence of drums and like, you know, rhythm, because obviously rhythm comes from the drum, and the drum comes from Africa. Africa that comes from the first people. And the four of a four account that you love so much is based on your heartbeat. That's why music

sounds so good when it's you know, a two base count. Anyway, I wanted to create a show that could give a voice to all of these things and establish a dialogue and get folks to pay attention and serve the information to them to where they don't have to look for it, because a lot of folks don't know what to look for or to look for anything in the first place. And so all of the partners that carry this show, and I appreciate all of you for trusting me with this.

I've and trying to do this, and all the folks that listen every week to this show. Again, I think it's important to have the conversations with the people who are listening to the show on their terms. And so again for me to go beyond, you know and get deeper into unpacking you know, economics one oh one. It might be a little bit much for a lot of folks to understand, but at least that could serve to suggest that there's more going on here than just us

fighting each other. That absolutely serves the interests of a capitalistic society, because as soon as you wake up and snap out of it and recognize what's really going on, you know, there's this call that has been proclaimed loudly

in recent months, eat the rich. And that's something that I've seen at the Black Lives Matter protests and so forth, And it's because a lot of folks are aware that this all boils down to, you know, follow the money, and this eat the rich is something that a lot of wealthy folks are afraid of because you know, it's very difficult to gain wealth, maintain wealth, maintain safety. You know, even if you want safety, you have to employ people that make less money than you, you know, and you

have to pay for their loyalty. And if there's one hundred people outside of your door and you have one security guard, you know, at a point some folks are going to have to make some tough decisions, and so it serves the interest of capitalism, especially those at the top of it, to keep everyone else divided. And so

that's why healing and reconciliation is necessary. Because the more cooperative we are and our dealings with each other, the more likely we are to survive this obviously failed experiment known as capitalism. But we are able to take what I believe are the best ideals of the American experiment and champion those into the future. Less the fear less, the divisiveness, less, the disinformation and misinformation, less the you know, the bitter divide that separates us right along those party lines,

you know. And so again, in dealing with a person or a small group of people, you know that block button is super duper effective. I will always be a lover of the block button because you know, if I don't need any nonsense in my day to day, I'm not going to take any nonsense in my day to day. And I think that you can extrapolate that. And you know, if there's people that you're dealing with, you know, family or otherwise, if you've fought the good fight and you

recognize that this person has doubled down. They are entrenched. This is what they're gonna die. They're gonna go down on this ship. They're gonna die on that right. No sense in you exhausting yourself. You're an emotional being. You have to protect your own interest, and you have to stand up for your brothers and your sisters and the planet and everything else that is morally true and just.

And so if you need to save your energy for those you know greater causes and leave your uncle to starve on the vine with you know, his Trump flag on the back of his truck, you know I would but applaud you in doing that. Don't think that's a bad thing at all. But again, I feel like there has been a massive smear campaign that has taken place, a massive pr campaign for capitalism, for the Republican Party

and so forth. Where how is it that the Republican Party is the party where Jesus of the heart of That's so crazy. You know, Gandhi's uh quoted something a long time ago and he said, uh, I like your christ. You know, Gandhi was not Christian christ. You know, he says, I like your Christ, I don't like your Christians. They are so unlike your christ how about that? And but

you know, again that suggests that the pr campaign. You know that these guys have convinced folks that, you know, if you just put in a little hard work, then you'll live the American dream and you'll make four hundred thousand and one dollars. And then you know, Joe Biden's coming from the job. You know, because again, up until that point, your money's safe. It's not like once you get four hundred GE's they're taking it from you.

could get their head around. I felt like the pandemic was should have been enough of a catalyst for people to realize that the vast majority of us are not safe or sound within this system, because we watched how many people lose their jobs, file for unemployment, you know, risk losing their homes, accessibility to food resources, and that is all at the hands of a system that tells us that all of those things are earned, they're not given.

You earn shelter, you earn food, you earn water, you earn clothing, and so when we go without, I would have thought, certainly that would have been a wake up call to everybody that as people are, you know, not able to pay their bills, they don't, they don't own their homes, they don't own their cars, They you know now don't have cable or internet or electricity or anything

like that. That that would have been a wake up call that this system is not safe for any of us really outside of what is the one person that we talk.

true about these political parties. If the Republican Party, which again I am not a Republican. Never a day in my life will I ever be a Republican. I like the color, but rest of that stuff, y'all can keep it.

But if the Republican Party were to rebuild itself around principles that were consistent and decent ideas that I don't have to agree with, but they there's a logic there, and they're consistently deployed at all levels of Republican governance, you know, I would come to respect again the fact that there is a two party system and not a one party system with a cancer growing on its other half, you know, or or you know, that's a terrible analogy,

but you get what I'm trying to say. And another thing is, you know, I do really wish that Republicans would come to terms with the fact that there are less of them, you know what they try to do, and they try to retain their power using all of every trick in the book, not just voter suppression, but you know the you know, the Senate has given crazy power to white males in Middle America because all those the least populated states all get to senators the same

way the most populated states do. And so most folks that live in the middle of the country that are white and males, I mean, their vote counts for seventy five percent of what a vote in Los Angeles would

count for. You know, the fact that Washington, d c. And Puerto Rico are not states and they can't cast votes, that they don't have any Senate representation is again further proof that, you know, these folks will hang on to every modicum of power that they have right and try to continue to shape the world and this country, especially in such a way that it serves their interests, and that is not fair. I don't think these people really care too much about what's fair and what's not fair.

But knowing that once you know that they know that it's not fair, once you know that they are going to die on that heel blocking is fine, but anything short of that, I think that it's at least worth

at least if you have the space. I'd never ask you to do anything you weren't comfortable with, but if you have the space, having one conversation with a person who might have voted for Donald Trump and talk to them about how that vote made you feel, and I think that if we can start there, we might be okay. And with that said, thank you again for joining us. What's your Instagram?