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