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 am your host, Rams' ja he is Ramsey's Jaw. I am q Ward. You are tuned into Civic Cipher, Yes you are, and we have a very special show in store for you today. Please stick around because we are talking to the one, the only Asian Self. You might know her
from going viral on social media time and time again. Well, we actually are going to be having a conversation with her about several goings on, particularly around immigration and status, racial status and classification and so forth, because there are some goings on that many people are not aware of. And then, of course for those that don't know, today's
guest as a social media influencer and activist. Again she's Asian Self, and she can be found online at the handle at Asian Self, Asian Underscore so or at Mixed Present and again she speaks on and organizes around the mixed, bipoc multiracial experience in the United States.
Asian Self. Welcome to the show.
Thanks for having me. I'm so excited to be here.
Yeah, sorry about that.
It was like a mouthful, But hopefully you can tell that we're brimming with excitement and really excited to get into the conversation. Again, a lot of developments, particularly in Los Angeles, we've learned a lot lately about how human beings are regarded.
Using a pseudo scientific.
I wouldn't even call it pseudo scientific, bogus scientific basis known as race, but it's something that we've come to regard each other, you know, as and it's how we frame our society. So again, really excited to get into those weaks. But long before we get there, we have to take a moment and acknowledge some ebony x xces.
Shall we Yeah, I think we shall.
So today's Ebony excellence, we are shouting out the one and only Kendrick Lamar. Were obviously are big fans of Kendrick Lamar on this show, and I'll share a bit from Hot New Hip Hop to frame the conversation. Kendrick Lamar and Siss set a new standard on the Grand National Tour. More importantly, the tour embodies PG Lang's forward
thinking ethos at the intersection of art and media. Triumphant Hardy hardly describes the past twelve months of Kendrick Lamar's career like that marked the beginning of a new era of his career, where he'd officially depart from Top Dog Entertainment and embark on a new journey as a co founder of PG Lang, a multidisciplinary creative communications company that has extended its reach to the Super Bowl, Cash app,
Calvin Klein, and Converse, among others. Since Good Kid, Mad City, Kendricks bought a cinematic appeal to his work that's gone from tragic love stories, introspective reflections on inner conflict, therapy sessions and origin stories that have been worthy of Oscars had they been turned in the Hollywood movies as much
of the numerous Grammys he's collected over his career. And yet this new chapter of his career, in the wake of Not Like Us as Success, has shaped what will undoubtedly be remembered as an iconic run, one that seems much more influenced by the evolving world of communication than it is about simply wrapping. And for those that don't know, he has broken some records during the North American leg of his GNX tour and is now the highest grossing
hip hop concert. The Opening nine in Minneapolis grossed over nine point one million dollars.
More than forty.
Seven thousand fans attended, making Lamar the first rapper to exceed nine million dollars in a single show. He continued to top this record with the Seattle show grossing a staggering in fourteen point eight million from six nine and forty one tickets sold, and this is now the highest grossing concert by a black man. The Dallas show at the AT and T Stadium grossed eleven point eight to two million dollars, sur passing the previous record held by
the Weekend So shout out to Kendrick Lamar. All right, Asian soap, I did my best to give you. I apologize an awkward introduction, but I do know your work. I'm super familiar with your work, and I know that a lot of people who listen to our show, a lot of people who are interested in trying to make the world a better place, have seen you senior viral
moments from time to time. Do us a little bit of a favor, though, for folks that may not be familiar, Talk a little bit about your background and your activism, maybe even what led you to your activism, just so that we have a bit of a rapport with our listeners.
Yeah, of course. So, like you said, I'm an influencer and activist. I organize around a lot of the bipoc and mixed race issues in the community, and I've been speaking out, learning, unlearning, relearning real history for well over a decade at this point, and there's still so much to uncover. I consider myself perpetual student. But my roots and activism actually started with old school hip hop.
I mean back in middle school.
I found myself really like resonating with the music, not just like the sound, but like the stories and the truth and like where the rawness was coming from. And it helped me make sense of what I was seeing in the world around me because my father is an Asian immigrant and my mother is white from the Midwest, and we had a lot of racism in our own family dynamics, unfortunately, but I saw such a stark difference in how they were treated. But as children, you don't
have words for stuff like that, you know. And on top of that, I grew up in a really multicultural community. I mean, I was surrounded by other kids whose parents immigrated. There was lots of Cambodians and Cape Verdians, Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, Haitians, Jamaicans, like everybody, and we were all living through things that we didn't have the language for. But for a lot of us, the music actually gave us a mum and a lot of vocabulary and a lot of like I guess,
affinity with one another. And you know, obviously we were living through, you know, like so many other people of color, like racism or racire identity struggles and you don't always have the words for that. And that's like kind of what got me into the journey, and it helped me really understand that everything that we're experiencing was systemic and not by accident and very much related to history. And so that's like how I root in everything that I do.
And that's why I appreciate this platform that y'all have built, Like it's the same you know, rooted energy and true to the conversation that we all need.
To be having.
You know, it means the world that you were able to make time, you know, to come on the show. It's a moment in history that I think will not soon be forgotten. But you know, those of us that are in the activist space, it'd be easy to either have something else that you feel like you need to be doing or feel so overwhelmed that you couldn't press pause to stop and sit with us. So we appreciate it. You focus a lot on what it means to be
a mixed race bipoc individual in the United States. What are some things that people should know about that experience and why it's unique.
Honestly, when it comes to that experience, there is so many generalizations and misconceptions and stereotypes that kind of circulate around, like you know what that experience is like in the first place, And I think just the biggest thing is, you know, we all need a community space. And the only way anything has ever changed, or the way narratives have ever shifted or anything big in that way has
happened is through solidarity. And it usually comes through understanding and people hearing more about our stories and hearing more
about what our experiences are. Because there's so many, so many misconceptions about being mixed race that all go back to systemic issues, and I think having that connection back to history and also speaking out about it and also creating the space for other mixed folks has just been such an important part of this work, and I think that that's really important to again have my foundation.
In now Now speaking of this, you know, and your most recent viral video, you're talking about.
How race is.
Classified in the United States, and a lot of people were kind of shocked that this was the thing.
You know, people.
Obviously nowadays have become very accustomed to the idea of race, and you know, most people have found a way to fit neatly into one box or another. Some people who are mixed race particularly have found a way to navigate those waters, and many people still are very confused by the concept of race entirely. However, the government just made
some sweeping changes. So talk to us about these changes, talk to us about the people who are affected, the implications, et cetera, because this is kind of the main thing that we wanted to talk about, and this is something that people need to know about.
Yeah, so forty seven million people just had the race reclassified by the US government, even though one in seven people are mixed race.
It didn't only impact mixed race people.
It also impacted eighty percent of Latino people who filled out the census and every single race category got affected by this. So they for the last couple censuses, they use something called the mark method, which is the modified Age and Race Census, and in this particular one, the data was so they use it as like a way to like standardize the data because you can fill out the some other race box and put whatever you want
in there essentially, so you can self identify. You can also choose like, for example, me like if I wanted to choose some other race box, but then also choose the Asian box, you can do that, so you.
Can select multiple boxes. So this is just another box on the list.
And so basically what happened is they standardize the data, but they reclassified a bunch of people as white. To say that seventy five percent of the US population is white, which is not true.
We just know that.
And for it to now say that these forty seven million people were reclassified and forty million are now white is really questionable. And the census essentially walked back this encouragement they had for folks to self identify, and they even increased the character count for the some other race box.
And then with this they just reclassified everyone into these outdated races, categories, and the implications are crazy because data itself is black and white, but its uses are super subjective, and depending on how it's used, they can be deeply political and have really harmful impacts. So when we're seeing DEI efforts and inclusivity efforts being rolled back, this kind of reclassification can not only erase entire communities and justify
really harmful policy decision making. But data from the census itself affects everything. It's funding political representation, healthcare, access, voting, districting, etc. Like so much more so when the numbers are manipulated like this so dramatically, it's not just a data issue, it's potentially a human rights issue.
Human rights at this time to say is under attack
is not really saying enough. And lots of people would like to argue that white privilege right as we talk about this statistic with you know, people being reclassified as white, that white privilege isn't real, and Rams and I have seen that from you know, people who are white who think that white privilege means I win every time, I'm always successful, I'm rich, My life is comfortable, no hurdles, no pain points, no struggle, when what it really means is that the society that you grew up in was
not completely structured to work against you. What are some ways that you push against that sentiment, because I know that's something that all of us hear from time to time.
Honest, it's so sickening how often we hear it.
Well, I mean, I want to say that this, with this reclassification is not common with any privilege, because people get the privilege based off of how they're perceived and having Like I don't know if you could tell on this video, but I'm not perceived as white immediately when people meet me, so like, even though I am technically white, there's a difference in the treatment. Right. However, you know, there's a lot of Latino people who got reclassified.
And they may or may not look.
White presenting because there are people who are white presenting or white passing as some people say, or whatever. So I did see some people in the comments talking about, well, isn't this a good thing? Does this mean we'll get more resources and we'll get more stuff, and it's it's not true. You know, they're not doing this at all
to give us any more benefits. But what I say is I'm just very very vocal about the fact that a lot of people misunderstand and co opt so many terms, like we see that with woke, we see that with you know, like the gay agenda, and like a whole bunch of different stuff, and white privilege is just another one of those words. And like you said, it doesn't mean that you don't struggle, It just means you're struggle.
You don't struggle because of your race, and it means you're not navigating.
It means that you're navigating the world with way fewer racial obstacles and a lot more unspoken considered and a lot more easier access to opportunities. And you know, the weaponizing and the co opting of these words are so harmful, But at the core, it's about the systemic advantages that white people hold simply because of how systems in this country have been built, and the fact that people make
it about themselves. It's so hard because the only thing that I see that you can really do to push back is by having the conversations with people, but then also just blatantly being like you're now making this whole topic about you, and the fact that you need to censor yourself in this is white privilege, Like it's literally an action right now, you are doing it right now.
So I think that we would have Q and I would have a pretty good guess as to why the Census would reclassify all this data or what forces might be behind it. But do you have any like real insight into why this is happening to what end and who is responsible for it?
Well, so the Census, So I want to say, the Census itself has their own explanation of this, and obviously they serve.
Their own narrative around this. So it's the posession of the data.
Exactly, and they outlined the process and the data is all available on the website. However, we got reached out to by Ethnefax, which is another you know organization that works with like Nielsen and stuff like that, and they raised the flag because the data was so drastically changed and so this one is so different from the last two times it was used because of how drastically it
was changed, and that's the problem. And then there's also been a myriad of other things that they've done where they changed the methodology and so people that can skew perceptions of things that can create like jumps and changes in data that people could use as like drastic ways saying that like more migrants are coming to this country. Or it's just because people don't understand how like dense this is and how what the methodologies are and how
this is used. It can be really confusing. But why am I confused? I feel like I'm not answering the question. Did I forget the question?
No?
No, no, I'm just wondering where this comes from, Who's trying to do this and to what end? So I think so I think, yeah.
Okay, I'm so sorry, my age. I'm so sorry.
People will say that it's not the census. It's just you don't really know. I don't have like an insider from the Census like telling me, like you know, whistleblowing anything. All I have is the data that the problem is. Data is black and white, but it's objectively like so
subjective in its use case. Okay, And there's already been a number of articles that came out that's said that miss represented this data entirely, and so it could be that they're doing something like this to basically, you know, set things up for the current administration to make really harmful decisions.
Okay.
It could be that I don't have any insight into whether it is for sure, and I don't know allowed to say that, but it could very well be in that direction, Okay.
If I may. And you tell me if this sounds like conspiracy theory, you tell me. You know, Q and I I think you would agree with me. We're both a little you have to have a degree of like conspiracy theory ishness about you because you're looking for stuff and patterns that you know you know are there and you're trying to make sense of it.
But I agree with you.
Okay, very good.
So one of the things that we know to be true is that the far right feels like they are being replaced. There is this idea of the great replacement theory. It's a theory that came out of France and kind of took root in friend circles in political arenas around the world, particularly in the far right in this country. And these people feel like Jewish people are replacing them, Melanated people are replacing them, immigrants are replacing them, and as a result of that, they will lose the numbers,
they will lose the political influence, so forth, and so on. Now, the current administration is chock full of people who have echoed these sentiments to one de career or another, including the President, and how the data is interpreted could.
Breathe life into people who feel like they are being placed.
Right, So let's just call all these this certain group of people white so that we get the numbers back on our side and that pacifies the fringe folks who are super worried the Jewish people are conspiring to replace them. Now again, I know that that sounds like I'm being the conspiracy theorist, but beyond that, it's hard to kind of figure out what's going on here, you know what I mean, And you know, you you kind of work in these circles a little bit more closely.
How does that hit you?
The replacement theory is such crazy projection, and honestly, it seems very real to me. I mean, there's a lot of Freudian slips kind of alluding to that's the thought process around a lot of people.
I mean, a lot of people.
Think that that's a lot of the motivation around the abortion ban that's been you know, taking hold and stuff like that. So I don't think it's conspiracy theory, but in the circles that I'm in, we hear and see stuff that are so aligned with that. Yeah, it is quite possible. And the thing is that kind of like puts me off about some people. I'm sorry, Am I
allowed to swear? I'm so sorry? But the thing that kind of gets me hot sometimes is that people won't believe something until somebody confirms that this is in fact what we're doing, and they will never do that. Everything has kind of always been like that, you know what I mean. And that's why when people say things like there's no racist legislation or laws that exist to this day, I'm like, well, there is, but so much is done neutrally on paper and the census, this whole thing with
the census is the same thing. It looks neutral on paper, but how things are weaponized in real life is where the consequences are exact.
Yeah.
I had someone argue with me recently about some non capitalist, non expecitative decisions that Ramsson I made at a kind of a volatile moment in our career. And the problem with trying to argue with us is that we do a journalistically credible, data driven show every day on these very topics so it's your feelings versus our data in facts. So it makes the argument very short because a couple of rebuttals back and forth and you realize your loud
war off and my data is still accurate. And the person said to me, it's not about facts, data and information, it's about rhetoric and narrative. And I said, oh, okay, I didn't know that was the game that we were playing. I would have never played. I don't have the tools for that game. But it takes me back to the points that you guys are making. Let's just reassure our people that we're not being replaced, right, Let's find a way to make this data say something different, because the
rhetoric and the narrative are what's most important. And the really interesting thing is those who are manipulating the data. Sorry, guys, I don't think they actually believe that. I just think they know they can rale their base up with that fear. I don't think they're scared of being replaced or think that it's actually happening. But they know there's tens of millions of people that if they say that out loud
to them, they can make them feel a way. So here's a way to reassure them that we're not being replaced and we really are still the majority here and make them feel great about themselves because I don't like to say we're prone to conspiracy theory, because people dismiss that term as just blatantly wrong information. But we are definitely ones who will ask questions and who will not just believe what we're told because someone said it confidently on a well pud YouTube video. So you know, that's
kind of my take on that topic. N This that's all I got.
Well, while we're here, let's switch here is a bit because you know, you mentioned capitalism, and that's another area that you've dived into. So one of the things that we haven't done on this show. One of the areas, the subjects we haven't broached. One of the movements, the rallying cries that we haven't shared on any of our
platforms is this notion of eating the rich. Right, But it's something that we're familiar with, something that we've heard, So for people who might not be familiar with it but might be listeners of.
The show, talk about what that means and.
What the benefit or I guess cost benefit analysis of that sentiment would produce in the real world in terms of real, average, every day American.
Yeah, well, eat the Rich is a metaphorical slogan. It's rooted in history dating back from like the French Revolution and has had like a various amount of resurgences, and you know, it usually comes back in a time where there's a lot of large concentrations of wealth and a huge inequity for most people. And it's not it's a rallying cry against the extreme wealth hoarding and systemic inequity.
And it reflects this like growing sentiment that many people feel around billionaires that thrive while others are out here they can't afford housing, they can't afford healthcare, clean water, food, Like we have all of these disparities, and you know, we just see people like Jeff Bezos. I don't know if you've heard about the protests in Venice that was successful. Yeah, why are you renting out Venice for your freaking wedding when you haven't paid any taxes?
That's crazy work.
And you know, it's a provocative phrase, but the messaging is so clear and like we're just long overdue for redistribution, accountability and a reckoning with the system that prioritizes profit over people. And you know, billionaires do not happen like in a single lifetime. Most of them are from generational wealth.
And when you think back to like the robber barons and stuff like that, they were doing all of these things outside of the law, you know, doing all of these crazy exploitative measures and exploiting people and wages and labor and environments and all of these different things. And so a lot of the problems we have can go back to billionaires. So again, no accountability for most of them for really really terrible treatment of people.
And yeah, well, no, I appreciate that explanation because and I want to add another element here is that billionaires indeed have the capacity to influence the masses. Because there's there are people who push back on this or is your problem with billionaires? Or is your problem with the right wing? Or is your problem with the left wing? Or you know, what's your problem? You know, you can't
all these things can't be wrong. And it's like, no, well, if billionaires are able to control media outlets, you know, the Washington Post, Fox News with Rupert Murdock, et cetera, then they can influence huge swaths of the population too, with propaganda with selected stories and a cultivated narrative to really bring people around to their way of thinking, usually by dangling a carrot at the end of the stick, suggesting that somehow, some way those people might end up billionaires too.
So stick