June 21, 2025 • 27 mins
Today’s guest is Wendy Amara—an activist, board member of Roots and Wings (a content creator group that uplifts the stories of immigrants) and the host of the Yes, Mujer--Build It! podcast. She can be found online @wendyamara.
In the first half of the show, we get some insight into the Ice Raid protests in Los Angeles, the culture of protesting in Los Angeles, and what outcomes the protesters want to see.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Broadcasting from the Hip Hop Weekly Studios. Welcome to another
episode of Civic Cipher, where our mission is to foster allyship,
empathy and understanding. I am your host, ramses Ja.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
He is ramses Ja, I am Qward. You are tuned
in to Civic Cipher, Yes, you are.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
And we want you to stick around because we have
a special guest in the building. She has been connected
to us through family ties, and she goes by the
name of Wendy Amara, who is an activist, a board
member of Roots and Wings, a content creator group that
uplifts the stories of immigrants, and she is the host
(00:35):
of the Yes Muhar Build It podcast and she can
be found online at Wendyamara dot com. Welcome to the show, Wendy, Thank.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
You, Thank you, ramses thank you Qward. Thank you for
having me. I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Oh, we are excited to talk to you about the
goings on in Los Angeles. So obviously this is something
that matters to us and we are just now getting
to the point where we're able to dedicate a full
conversation to it, and so we want you to stick
around because of course there's a lot of things going
back and forth about what's going on in LA A
(01:11):
lot of people really don't know what the what is
out there. They see the images and they kind of
have some sense of it. But of course, Wendy, being
a person who's been on the ground and being able
to kind of work with these communities very closely and
being a part of these communities as well, is going
to be able to offer us some insight. And then,
(01:33):
you know, for the second part of the show, we're
going to do our best to give you the ally
and the and the would be ally listening to us,
the potential talking points that conservatives might have when it
comes to immigration, and ways that you can push back
against narratives that are that misrepresent or mischaracterize, you know,
(01:54):
immigration in this country. So we have a whole lot
for you to stick around for. But before we get
into the weeds, it is time is all for some
ebony excellence, shall we? I think we shall. Today's ebony
excellence comes from the Black Information Network. I'll read it.
And we talked about this guy before on the QR code,
(02:14):
but why not bring him back again? Right? Seattle Police
Chief Sean Barnes said he expects to go to jail
for standing up for the First Amendment rights of residents
and attacks from the Trump administration against other politicians and protesters.
For KUOW, protests broke out in Seattle and other cities
across the nation in response to anti ICE demonstrations in
Los Angeles. On Monday, June ninth, three hundred people marched
(02:36):
to Seattle City Hall to rally against the arrest of
a union leader during the LA protests. Tuesdays, June and tenths,
protests in Seattle included a gathering outside Henry M. Jackson
Federal Building. Protesters chanted anti ICE slogans, and a few
clashed with police. Trump has responded to protest in LA
by threatening California Governor Gavin Newsom and activating the National
Guard and the Marines. During a recent Public Safety Committee meeting,
(03:00):
Barnes pledged to prioritize the rights of Seattle residents amid
the Trump administration's response to protest, noting that he expects
to go to jail over the issue. Quote, I will
do everything in my power to protect anyone in Seattle
from anyone who comes to this city with the intention
to hurt them or inhibit their First Amendment rights. What
that means is that at some point I will probably
(03:20):
go to jail and be imprisoned because we have an
administration that has threatened to jail politicians and has threatened
to jail a governor. This is what Barnes told council members.
He goes on to say the federal government's decision to
bring in the military and I was a marine, is
not warranted. He also noted that cities like la and
Seattle have experience with handling large demonstrations and keeping them peaceful,
(03:44):
and yeah, that's this is like human excellence. But this
guy happens to also be black, so that's cool, you know,
but this is what all human beings should be doing
right now, and he's stepping up to the plate. So
we had to shut them out. And he's a police
chief at that, so kudos. All right, So ICE raid
(04:08):
protests in Los Angeles. First off, tell us a little
bit about yourself, Wendy Amara. We know you of course
through you know ritzyp who is you know, family and
of course a dear friend of the show. But you know,
this is your first time talking to our listeners, So
give a little bit of background on yourself, just so
(04:29):
folks know who they're listening to today.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Sure, thank you so much, so, Wendy Amara. I'm a
life and business coach, primarily for women of color. I've
been a coach for eighteen years. I've had a lot
of experience in the work, but I went to college
to work in nonprofits. I actually have a master's degree
in urban planning, and I wanted to do social policy planning.
So I've always had politics community organizing in my blood.
(04:54):
I remember protesting Pete Wilson and Prop one eighty seven
back in the nineteen nineties. I remember those protests. Actually
got arrested on UCLA's campus for protesting Prop two o
nine back in the day. So I've been an activist
for a long time, a community organizer, built my business,
left the nonprofit world because I was exhausted from working
(05:17):
so many hours and not getting some good pay, and
found coaching and figured out that my life was going
to move in a slightly different direction. I consider myself
highly privileged in that I have been able to build
a life for myself and my family where I have
a lot of choices and options, and I'm very clear
that I use that privilege to stand up for those
(05:37):
that don't have a voice that don't have aren't able
to speak up for themselves, like my immigrant parents who
came from Guatemala back in the nineteen seventies and were
able to get amnesty during the Reagan administration. So I'm
a child of immigrants, I'm first gen. I see a
lot of immigration issues in our country that have been
here for a long time, and what's been underneath is
(06:00):
now just more apparent to everybody. Now it's in our face.
That's what we're saying right now.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
There's an interesting thing happening when you know, tens of
thousands or hundreds of thousands or millions of people are
outside protesting. Because all of us have a role to
play in fights like this, Ramsay, myself and Wendy for
our listeners. We are broadcasters, journalists, content creators. What role
(06:30):
do we play right using our tools and our platforms
to participate in protests. It's not always just about being
out on the streets, you know. The kind of nature
of civic cipher came from us realizing that the bullhorn
only reaches you know, a few hundred people that are
in the space where you are, and tapping these microphones
(06:52):
gives us access to a much larger audience. So, in
your opinion, Wendy, how do we play our part and
supporting movements like the protests happening in La.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Yes, well, one of the ways to play our part
is by sharing the stories, sharing the facts of what
we're witnessing, what we're seeing happen, and then sharing our stories.
Because you're absolutely right, the bullhorn will only go as
far when you're out in the street. But the new
bullhorn now is social media. So I'm actually part of
this group called Roots and Wings. It's a group of
creators that got together. One guy, Jay Gonzalez, went viral
(07:27):
through one video he did on TikTok that ended up
getting something like twenty million views. He was talking about
how he found out his mom, who is an immigrant
from Mexico, voted for Trump, and then that conversation that
they had him coming to the realization of that and
putting that out there. That one TikTok went viral, and
that's how Roots and Wings was created because somebody else
(07:50):
reached out to him and said, what are we going
to do about this? Because my mom also voted for Trump?
What are we going to do? So a couple people
got together it became sixty of us. Now we've done
a couple of videos and the power of being able
to use storytelling in this new way to not only
get information out there, but to affect people's emotions. Right
(08:11):
what do we do with all of these vent up
hyper emotions we're feeling right now. Everyone's angry, everyone's frustrated,
everyone's in fear. There's a lot of anxiety in our
community right now. And as content creators, what we can
do is actually help people, support people in taking that
emotion and using it in some way, making some decision
(08:34):
about Okay, are you going to share what you're thinking?
Are you going to knock on your neighbor's door. I mean,
everybody can do something right now. It doesn't have to
be out there protesting. You can actually be calling your
council members talking to people about the big bill that's
going to get passed right that big beautiful bill in July.
You can be out there just filming ice as they're
(08:55):
passing by the street. That is important information. We're realizing
that what we're doing as content creators right now is
actually reaching more people than what the hotlines that have
been set up by some of the organizations because one
post or one reel or one TikTok can reach millions
of people. So one person in our group actually has
(09:17):
more power than some of the elected officials who might
put out a statement and only like three hundred people
read their statement. Who trusts who? As content creators? People
trust us, and what do we do with that trust?
Speaker 1 (09:32):
You know? I think that that brings an interesting point
out because I know that there were people. So we
had the No King's Day protest. It was all over
the country, of course, but in Phoenix. I went to
the one in Phoenix, Arizona, and Q was in LA
(09:52):
that day, so I know, and Q, you can help
me out if you had the same experience. But I
know that there were people who were wanting to go,
but they were worried that it was going to be
like LA and they were worried that it was going
to be a riot. And I'm like, well, where are
you getting this from? And they're like, well, you know,
(10:13):
they're calling it a riot. They're saying LA is rioting
writing writing. I'm like, okay, so where's this coming from?
And then you get the articles and you and because
we work in the media space, we're able to see, Okay,
who wrote this article and we can check you know
what political bias does this news organization have to it? Right?
And of course these are right wing media outlets that
(10:38):
are calling what's going on in LA riots right, and
that'll scare people from participating. It provides cover for people
and justification for people who feel like, you know, all
immigrants should get deported in the most inhumane way possible. Whatever.
It just says, Okay, well, these are violent people. They
(11:00):
need to get out of the country, right, So there's
a ton of things wrong with the narrative if the
narrative is inaccurate. So I want you to do us
all a favor here. How would you, a person who's
been on the ground at these protests, how would you
classify these protests? Are they protest or are they riots?
And then tell us why. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
I was at the No Kings March on Saturday in
downtown LA, which now has been officially stated as the
biggest march that we have had in Los Angeles history,
the most amount of people marching. I would categorize it
as a march, which is what it was. We marched
from downtown LA to about four or five miles around peacefully,
(11:46):
peacefully and dancing in the streets. In fact, I was
dancing to one of my favorite bands, also Motley, who
happened to be there. It felt more like a party
than like any sort of even protest. Of course, there
were lots of signs, and there was police presence, but
they were standing on the outside. There was the National Guard,
which we don't even know why the National Guard is
(12:08):
in LA. There are no violence happening in the streets
out in LA. Even the protests and the marches are
not violent. Now. Of course, there's a few people that
get violent around five o'clock, eight o'clock. The mayor of
Los Angeles put in a curfew where we can't be
in certain parts of downtown LA after eight pm. So
as it gets closer to the curfew, right, the cops
(12:30):
show up with the horses, and it becomes more like, okay,
we're going to start moving the crowd. But during the day,
completely peaceful. The amount of arrest compared to the amount
of people that were there is insane, right, there was
hundreds of thousands of people out in the streets. Over
this last week. I think there's been fifteen arrests or something.
Very small in comparison to and yes, there are some
(12:52):
people that will get violent, but there are not violent
protests happening. There are no riots happening in Los Angelis.
The city will not burn down, and the safety of
our people is not in danger. We are okay, We
do not need the National Guard. All of that is
a story that the media has created that I think
(13:15):
the right philosophy has created that Donald Trump has created
so that he could send the National Guard, so that
he could create a war where there is no war.
He could create violence where there is no violence. There
just wasn't. Of course, we're going to go out in
the streets and protest when people are being literally kidnapped.
That's what the ice raids feel like to us. Imagine
(13:37):
a three or four trucks show up, these big, huge
trucks that don't have any sort of identification of police
or anything. They're just these vans, and then the van
doors open or the truck doors open, and outcome armed
men that all they have on is a police vest,
but there's no identification on them, and they have masks,
(13:58):
these huge masks. They're dressed in regular clothing. I'm talking
about jeans and a black t shirt. Okay, they're not
in a uniform of any sort. And then they just
grab people and move people.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
That's it.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
They show up at a car wash on a particular
corner and then just start grabbing people in that car
wash and putting them into their truck. They're not stopping
and asking excuse me, sir, what is your name? Where
were you born? Are you an American citizen? Do you
have citizenship paperwork or residency paperwork or a green card?
There is absolutely no communication. There is only grabbing people
(14:32):
who look illegal, right, what does illegal look like? Look illegal?
And then putting them in the van. And then these
people disappear. We're finding out that they're getting moved from
state to state. So if you were picked up in
California at a gas station yesterday, you're probably in Texas
by now at some holding cell somewhere, so that the
(14:53):
families can't get to them, the attorney, if they do
have an attorney, can't get to them. And there's a
certain percentage of them that are here legally, that are
going through a process of getting legalization, that actually have
paperwork if they would have been asked. In fact, there's
been people who literally had their passport in their pocket
and we're telling the ICE agents, I have my passport
(15:14):
right now, I just need to go to my pocket
and get it. And still got picked up. And we
have documentation of this through videos. We have people taking
out their cell phones. Here's the good news, guys. The
good news is everybody and their mother now has a
cell phone, right and everybody and the mother knows how
to take video. So everybody, whether you speak English or not,
has a camera in their hand all the time. Therefore,
(15:38):
everything's being documented, everything's being videoed. That's how we know
we're witnessing people being taken. Of course we're going to
say something as a city. Of course, we're going to
stand up for our community. These are our parents, these
are our brothers, sisters, uncles, kids. I mean, ICE is
showing up at hospitals. Ice is showing up at schools,
(15:59):
at graduations, at churches on Sunday, everywhere, everywhere. But we
are not being violent. There is nothing to be afraid of.
I also got a bunch of texts from people being like, Wendy,
you're gonna go out to downtown. I'm like, yes, I'm
gonna be there. And it was beautiful. It was like
a street party with love and joy and people uniting
(16:24):
and people hugging. There's a lot of love. It was community,
community standing up for each other. That's what we've been
doing here in La.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
You know, there's a lot to say about the other
ring of communities right now and taking people's skin color
and the language they speak and making that the criminal offense.
So it doesn't matter if you have your passport of
you come through the proper channels to seek you know,
either asylum or just as an immigrant who you know,
went through permanent residency and got a green cart and
(16:55):
then applied to be a citizen. And because we see
people being arrested at citizen hearings, it's a very intentional
and very cruel thing to do to someone when you're
criticizing of not going about it the right way and
specifically targeting people that are and no one, I won't
say no one, but a certain group of us intentionally
ignored the hypocrisy and that approach a lot about narratives
(17:20):
in the space that we work in and the way
that the narratives are shaped and then consumed by a
certain segment of our population, mostly right wing extremist and
dealing with a very very personal lived experience of this.
My children are dual citizens. Their mother is from Sonoda, Mexico,
(17:45):
and my wonderful babies did not get to spend Father's
Day with their father because I was in Los Angeles,
and forgive me, forbid their mom from bringing them here
because I noticed that state troopers were replaced with border patrol,
and having my half Mexican children and their Mexican mother
(18:08):
come to Los Angeles as it's the target of the
administration and it's very very cruel detention and deportation practices.
I just didn't, you know, want to even make that
a possibility. With what we do and the way we
know the importance of narrative. What do you think is
missing from the way the right wing is consuming the
(18:31):
information surrounding these raids and these protests, and you know
the way that they're consuming these narratives. What's missing from
the messaging to maybe get a more human response from
people who are politically not aligned.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
Yeah, well, I'll start with the what's missing is the
idea that immigrants are ruining this country, the idea that
immigrants are the enemy, right, so's missing is the facts
that immigrants have built this country or continue to build
this country. In fact, the Los Angeles economy is based
(19:09):
on immigrant workers, is based on undocumented workers. Undocumented people
are doing literally doing the jobs that cannot be filled
by regular Californians born in the state. The majority of
people being taken are not criminals. People will say, oh,
they're criminals because they crossed the border illegally and they're
(19:31):
here illegal. That technically is a misdemeanor. It's equivalent to
a speeding ticket. That's what you're saying. You're saying, somebody
who has done something that's equivalent to a speeding ticket
deserves to be picked up at their workplace the throne
in a van and then disappears right ends up going
back to wherever. Ninety percent of the people who they're
(19:53):
picking up do not have any other criminal record besides
being here. And you know it's ironic as they're picking
them up at workplaces. They're all working and contributing to
the economy. They're helping the economy, which, by the way,
they also pay taxes. So what's missing is the real facts.
What's happened with this administration happened the first time this
(20:14):
administration came to power is that they have othered the
immigrant and made the scapegoat of the undocumented people, that
undocumented people are the reason that so many problems are
happening in the United States, or the reasons why your
price of eggs is so expensive, are the reasons why
gasoline is so expensive. All of that is bs It's
(20:36):
not based in real facts. So what's missing is the
truth that immigrants actually contribute to this country.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
Now, I'm not saying we.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
Should have open borders and everybody should just come over.
There should be a path for citizenship, there should be
laws changed, policies put in place. But what I am
saying is that the way the narrative is run right now,
the way the story is being told right now, is
that that illegal immigrant that you're staring at right now
is the reason why you don't have more money in
(21:06):
your pocket, And that simply is not true. That is
a one hundred percent lie. Or that that immigrant that
you're staring at across the street who's selling oranges in
that corner, that immigrant is a rapist, a killer, a
part of the cartel, that those are complete atrocities.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
It's not true.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
If they're just straight out lying to people The fact
is that person who's standing at the corner selling the
oranges is a hard working human being who probably has
been here for fifteen twenty years, and during those fifteen
to twenty years has been contributing through his taxes, through
his work to this society. In fact, he probably picked
(21:44):
those oranges or works in the farms during the day
and then works at night and on the weekends, and
has been moving his family up. He has nothing to
do with why your life is the way your life is,
so we've become the scapegoats. That's the big part of
what's missing. At the heart of that is looking at Okay,
so why am I miserable? Why is the price of
(22:08):
aggs so expensive? Why is everything getting worse and worse
and worse. Why am I so angry? Those are the
real questions that we need to be looking at, and
we need to be looking as Americans in the mirror
for those answers. When people are upset, it's easy to
point the finger somewhere. And the people who Trump has
decided to point the finger to, and the right wing
(22:29):
conspiracy has decided to point the finger too, is immigrants.
So what's missing is the truth and compassion, compassion for
these people, compassion for our people.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Well, thank you for humanizing the immigrants, because that's something
that is very much missing from conversations. Like these people
are working, they're taking care of their families, they're elevating
their families, and I think the more humanized they are,
(23:00):
the less hotherable they can be. But I don't want to, like,
I don't want to harp on this, but I want
to make sure that we cover all of our bases
right because there are people that are gonna have some
challenging conversations after listening to us to have this conversation.
So I'm gonna I'm gonna circle back. You know, we
(23:20):
talked about whether or not these protests were bona fide
protest or were they riots? And you painted a picture
a picture that is very similar to the to what
I experienced out here, and typically it's typical of many
protests that I've been to. I've never been to a riot.
The last riots I know about we're in ninety two,
and I definitely was not outside for that. I was
(23:41):
a small child. But you know, everything else qualifies as
a protest. So you can bring your children and friends
and expect to have a good time and also let
your voice be heard. But again, there are there's a
reason that the right is consuming a particular version of
(24:03):
this is because it exists. There are pictures of way
Mos on fire, there are videos of protesters throwing rocks
at police cars, and these things exist over there. Now,
they're not, to be fair consuming content of police officers
(24:23):
shooting journalists or you know, taking down protesters and slamming
them on the ground and batoning them while they're on
the ground and running over them with horses and whatnot.
But the fact remains that, you know, this is a
part of the story. So how do you provide context
for the fires and the rocks? How do you provide
(24:44):
context for all of that? Because that's what a lot
of folks are using to say. Nope, these are riots,
these are bad people. We need to get them out
of the country. We have about a minute, so help
us out.
Speaker 3 (24:56):
Yeah, listen, Yes, there were places where way Moos were
on fire, but that's what happens after the Lakers win.
That's what happens after the Dodgers win.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
And go ahead, Well, no, let me say I protests,
in my estimation, are supposed to be disruptive. If it's
all peaceful and a kumbayad, then you know, nothing changed.
But anyway, go ahead, go ahead. After the games, go ahead.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
Yeah, after the Lakers win, we see taxis getting burnt.
Also ubers on fire. Also Yeah. LA is a very
passionate city. We have a long history of protests. We
have a long history right the walkouts. We have a
long history of being out in the streets. And when
we are super happy, we celebrate by burning things, and
(25:43):
also when we want to make a statement, we celebrate
by burning things. So it's part of our upbringing in
Los Angeles that we stand up for ourselves that we're
not the city that you mess with. I mean, there's
a reason we are the city that's being targeted right now,
right because he hates us, because we didn't vote for
him at all. We got to keep that into context
when you have huge amounts of people and then just
(26:06):
a few people who end up. I think it was
two waymos, three weaymos. Not that big of a deal.
Not a riot. There is not a riot happening in
Los Angeles.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Thank you, thank you fantastic. Well, you know, I think
that this is very important for people to know because
where you get your information and whether or not that
information is consistent with the version of truth that you
want to be true. I think that really matters. But
(26:37):
you know, there's a group of folks in the middle
who are genuinely, legitimately curious and a group of people
who I think really want to convince people that they're
consuming bad media or their heart is in the wrong place,
and I think this context really does help out with that.
So thank you for, like I said, humanizing in the
immigrant story, and also thank you for giving us perspective
(26:57):
on what's going on in Los Angeles. Stick around, going
to be back with a little bit more
Broadcasting from the Hip Hop Weekly Studios. Welcome to another
episode of Civic Cipher, where our mission is to foster allyship,
empathy and understanding. I am your host, ramses Ja.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
He is ramses Ja, I am Qward. You are tuned
in to Civic Cipher, Yes, you are.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
And we want you to stick around because we have
a special guest in the building. She has been connected
to us through family ties, and she goes by the
name of Wendy Amara, who is an activist, a board
member of Roots and Wings, a content creator group that
uplifts the stories of immigrants, and she is the host
(00:35):
of the Yes Muhar Build It podcast and she can
be found online at Wendyamara dot com. Welcome to the show, Wendy, Thank.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
You, Thank you, ramses thank you Qward. Thank you for
having me. I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Oh, we are excited to talk to you about the
goings on in Los Angeles. So obviously this is something
that matters to us and we are just now getting
to the point where we're able to dedicate a full
conversation to it, and so we want you to stick
around because of course there's a lot of things going
back and forth about what's going on in LA A
(01:11):
lot of people really don't know what the what is
out there. They see the images and they kind of
have some sense of it. But of course, Wendy, being
a person who's been on the ground and being able
to kind of work with these communities very closely and
being a part of these communities as well, is going
to be able to offer us some insight. And then,
(01:33):
you know, for the second part of the show, we're
going to do our best to give you the ally
and the and the would be ally listening to us,
the potential talking points that conservatives might have when it
comes to immigration, and ways that you can push back
against narratives that are that misrepresent or mischaracterize, you know,
(01:54):
immigration in this country. So we have a whole lot
for you to stick around for. But before we get
into the weeds, it is time is all for some
ebony excellence, shall we? I think we shall. Today's ebony
excellence comes from the Black Information Network. I'll read it.
And we talked about this guy before on the QR code,
(02:14):
but why not bring him back again? Right? Seattle Police
Chief Sean Barnes said he expects to go to jail
for standing up for the First Amendment rights of residents
and attacks from the Trump administration against other politicians and protesters.
For KUOW, protests broke out in Seattle and other cities
across the nation in response to anti ICE demonstrations in
Los Angeles. On Monday, June ninth, three hundred people marched
(02:36):
to Seattle City Hall to rally against the arrest of
a union leader during the LA protests. Tuesdays, June and tenths,
protests in Seattle included a gathering outside Henry M. Jackson
Federal Building. Protesters chanted anti ICE slogans, and a few
clashed with police. Trump has responded to protest in LA
by threatening California Governor Gavin Newsom and activating the National
Guard and the Marines. During a recent Public Safety Committee meeting,
(03:00):
Barnes pledged to prioritize the rights of Seattle residents amid
the Trump administration's response to protest, noting that he expects
to go to jail over the issue. Quote, I will
do everything in my power to protect anyone in Seattle
from anyone who comes to this city with the intention
to hurt them or inhibit their First Amendment rights. What
that means is that at some point I will probably
(03:20):
go to jail and be imprisoned because we have an
administration that has threatened to jail politicians and has threatened
to jail a governor. This is what Barnes told council members.
He goes on to say the federal government's decision to
bring in the military and I was a marine, is
not warranted. He also noted that cities like la and
Seattle have experience with handling large demonstrations and keeping them peaceful,
(03:44):
and yeah, that's this is like human excellence. But this
guy happens to also be black, so that's cool, you know,
but this is what all human beings should be doing
right now, and he's stepping up to the plate. So
we had to shut them out. And he's a police
chief at that, so kudos. All right, So ICE raid
(04:08):
protests in Los Angeles. First off, tell us a little
bit about yourself, Wendy Amara. We know you of course
through you know ritzyp who is you know, family and
of course a dear friend of the show. But you know,
this is your first time talking to our listeners, So
give a little bit of background on yourself, just so
(04:29):
folks know who they're listening to today.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Sure, thank you so much, so, Wendy Amara. I'm a
life and business coach, primarily for women of color. I've
been a coach for eighteen years. I've had a lot
of experience in the work, but I went to college
to work in nonprofits. I actually have a master's degree
in urban planning, and I wanted to do social policy planning.
So I've always had politics community organizing in my blood.
(04:54):
I remember protesting Pete Wilson and Prop one eighty seven
back in the nineteen nineties. I remember those protests. Actually
got arrested on UCLA's campus for protesting Prop two o
nine back in the day. So I've been an activist
for a long time, a community organizer, built my business,
left the nonprofit world because I was exhausted from working
(05:17):
so many hours and not getting some good pay, and
found coaching and figured out that my life was going
to move in a slightly different direction. I consider myself
highly privileged in that I have been able to build
a life for myself and my family where I have
a lot of choices and options, and I'm very clear
that I use that privilege to stand up for those
(05:37):
that don't have a voice that don't have aren't able
to speak up for themselves, like my immigrant parents who
came from Guatemala back in the nineteen seventies and were
able to get amnesty during the Reagan administration. So I'm
a child of immigrants, I'm first gen. I see a
lot of immigration issues in our country that have been
here for a long time, and what's been underneath is
(06:00):
now just more apparent to everybody. Now it's in our face.
That's what we're saying right now.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
There's an interesting thing happening when you know, tens of
thousands or hundreds of thousands or millions of people are
outside protesting. Because all of us have a role to
play in fights like this, Ramsay, myself and Wendy for
our listeners. We are broadcasters, journalists, content creators. What role
(06:30):
do we play right using our tools and our platforms
to participate in protests. It's not always just about being
out on the streets, you know. The kind of nature
of civic cipher came from us realizing that the bullhorn
only reaches you know, a few hundred people that are
in the space where you are, and tapping these microphones
(06:52):
gives us access to a much larger audience. So, in
your opinion, Wendy, how do we play our part and
supporting movements like the protests happening in La.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Yes, well, one of the ways to play our part
is by sharing the stories, sharing the facts of what
we're witnessing, what we're seeing happen, and then sharing our stories.
Because you're absolutely right, the bullhorn will only go as
far when you're out in the street. But the new
bullhorn now is social media. So I'm actually part of
this group called Roots and Wings. It's a group of
creators that got together. One guy, Jay Gonzalez, went viral
(07:27):
through one video he did on TikTok that ended up
getting something like twenty million views. He was talking about
how he found out his mom, who is an immigrant
from Mexico, voted for Trump, and then that conversation that
they had him coming to the realization of that and
putting that out there. That one TikTok went viral, and
that's how Roots and Wings was created because somebody else
(07:50):
reached out to him and said, what are we going
to do about this? Because my mom also voted for Trump?
What are we going to do? So a couple people
got together it became sixty of us. Now we've done
a couple of videos and the power of being able
to use storytelling in this new way to not only
get information out there, but to affect people's emotions. Right
(08:11):
what do we do with all of these vent up
hyper emotions we're feeling right now. Everyone's angry, everyone's frustrated,
everyone's in fear. There's a lot of anxiety in our
community right now. And as content creators, what we can
do is actually help people, support people in taking that
emotion and using it in some way, making some decision
(08:34):
about Okay, are you going to share what you're thinking?
Are you going to knock on your neighbor's door. I mean,
everybody can do something right now. It doesn't have to
be out there protesting. You can actually be calling your
council members talking to people about the big bill that's
going to get passed right that big beautiful bill in July.
You can be out there just filming ice as they're
(08:55):
passing by the street. That is important information. We're realizing
that what we're doing as content creators right now is
actually reaching more people than what the hotlines that have
been set up by some of the organizations because one
post or one reel or one TikTok can reach millions
of people. So one person in our group actually has
(09:17):
more power than some of the elected officials who might
put out a statement and only like three hundred people
read their statement. Who trusts who? As content creators? People
trust us, and what do we do with that trust?
Speaker 1 (09:32):
You know? I think that that brings an interesting point
out because I know that there were people. So we
had the No King's Day protest. It was all over
the country, of course, but in Phoenix. I went to
the one in Phoenix, Arizona, and Q was in LA
(09:52):
that day, so I know, and Q, you can help
me out if you had the same experience. But I
know that there were people who were wanting to go,
but they were worried that it was going to be
like LA and they were worried that it was going
to be a riot. And I'm like, well, where are
you getting this from? And they're like, well, you know,
(10:13):
they're calling it a riot. They're saying LA is rioting
writing writing. I'm like, okay, so where's this coming from?
And then you get the articles and you and because
we work in the media space, we're able to see, Okay,
who wrote this article and we can check you know
what political bias does this news organization have to it? Right?
And of course these are right wing media outlets that
(10:38):
are calling what's going on in LA riots right, and
that'll scare people from participating. It provides cover for people
and justification for people who feel like, you know, all
immigrants should get deported in the most inhumane way possible. Whatever.
It just says, Okay, well, these are violent people. They
(11:00):
need to get out of the country, right, So there's
a ton of things wrong with the narrative if the
narrative is inaccurate. So I want you to do us
all a favor here. How would you, a person who's
been on the ground at these protests, how would you
classify these protests? Are they protest or are they riots?
And then tell us why. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
I was at the No Kings March on Saturday in
downtown LA, which now has been officially stated as the
biggest march that we have had in Los Angeles history,
the most amount of people marching. I would categorize it
as a march, which is what it was. We marched
from downtown LA to about four or five miles around peacefully,
(11:46):
peacefully and dancing in the streets. In fact, I was
dancing to one of my favorite bands, also Motley, who
happened to be there. It felt more like a party
than like any sort of even protest. Of course, there
were lots of signs, and there was police presence, but
they were standing on the outside. There was the National Guard,
which we don't even know why the National Guard is
(12:08):
in LA. There are no violence happening in the streets
out in LA. Even the protests and the marches are
not violent. Now. Of course, there's a few people that
get violent around five o'clock, eight o'clock. The mayor of
Los Angeles put in a curfew where we can't be
in certain parts of downtown LA after eight pm. So
as it gets closer to the curfew, right, the cops
(12:30):
show up with the horses, and it becomes more like, okay,
we're going to start moving the crowd. But during the day,
completely peaceful. The amount of arrest compared to the amount
of people that were there is insane, right, there was
hundreds of thousands of people out in the streets. Over
this last week. I think there's been fifteen arrests or something.
Very small in comparison to and yes, there are some
(12:52):
people that will get violent, but there are not violent
protests happening. There are no riots happening in Los Angelis.
The city will not burn down, and the safety of
our people is not in danger. We are okay, We
do not need the National Guard. All of that is
a story that the media has created that I think
(13:15):
the right philosophy has created that Donald Trump has created
so that he could send the National Guard, so that
he could create a war where there is no war.
He could create violence where there is no violence. There
just wasn't. Of course, we're going to go out in
the streets and protest when people are being literally kidnapped.
That's what the ice raids feel like to us. Imagine
(13:37):
a three or four trucks show up, these big, huge
trucks that don't have any sort of identification of police
or anything. They're just these vans, and then the van
doors open or the truck doors open, and outcome armed
men that all they have on is a police vest,
but there's no identification on them, and they have masks,
(13:58):
these huge masks. They're dressed in regular clothing. I'm talking
about jeans and a black t shirt. Okay, they're not
in a uniform of any sort. And then they just
grab people and move people.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
That's it.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
They show up at a car wash on a particular
corner and then just start grabbing people in that car
wash and putting them into their truck. They're not stopping
and asking excuse me, sir, what is your name? Where
were you born? Are you an American citizen? Do you
have citizenship paperwork or residency paperwork or a green card?
There is absolutely no communication. There is only grabbing people
(14:32):
who look illegal, right, what does illegal look like? Look illegal?
And then putting them in the van. And then these
people disappear. We're finding out that they're getting moved from
state to state. So if you were picked up in
California at a gas station yesterday, you're probably in Texas
by now at some holding cell somewhere, so that the
(14:53):
families can't get to them, the attorney, if they do
have an attorney, can't get to them. And there's a
certain percentage of them that are here legally, that are
going through a process of getting legalization, that actually have
paperwork if they would have been asked. In fact, there's
been people who literally had their passport in their pocket
and we're telling the ICE agents, I have my passport
(15:14):
right now, I just need to go to my pocket
and get it. And still got picked up. And we
have documentation of this through videos. We have people taking
out their cell phones. Here's the good news, guys. The
good news is everybody and their mother now has a
cell phone, right and everybody and the mother knows how
to take video. So everybody, whether you speak English or not,
has a camera in their hand all the time. Therefore,
(15:38):
everything's being documented, everything's being videoed. That's how we know
we're witnessing people being taken. Of course we're going to
say something as a city. Of course, we're going to
stand up for our community. These are our parents, these
are our brothers, sisters, uncles, kids. I mean, ICE is
showing up at hospitals. Ice is showing up at schools,
(15:59):
at graduations, at churches on Sunday, everywhere, everywhere. But we
are not being violent. There is nothing to be afraid of.
I also got a bunch of texts from people being like, Wendy,
you're gonna go out to downtown. I'm like, yes, I'm
gonna be there. And it was beautiful. It was like
a street party with love and joy and people uniting
(16:24):
and people hugging. There's a lot of love. It was community,
community standing up for each other. That's what we've been
doing here in La.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
You know, there's a lot to say about the other
ring of communities right now and taking people's skin color
and the language they speak and making that the criminal offense.
So it doesn't matter if you have your passport of
you come through the proper channels to seek you know,
either asylum or just as an immigrant who you know,
went through permanent residency and got a green cart and
(16:55):
then applied to be a citizen. And because we see
people being arrested at citizen hearings, it's a very intentional
and very cruel thing to do to someone when you're
criticizing of not going about it the right way and
specifically targeting people that are and no one, I won't
say no one, but a certain group of us intentionally
ignored the hypocrisy and that approach a lot about narratives
(17:20):
in the space that we work in and the way
that the narratives are shaped and then consumed by a
certain segment of our population, mostly right wing extremist and
dealing with a very very personal lived experience of this.
My children are dual citizens. Their mother is from Sonoda, Mexico,
(17:45):
and my wonderful babies did not get to spend Father's
Day with their father because I was in Los Angeles,
and forgive me, forbid their mom from bringing them here
because I noticed that state troopers were replaced with border patrol,
and having my half Mexican children and their Mexican mother
(18:08):
come to Los Angeles as it's the target of the
administration and it's very very cruel detention and deportation practices.
I just didn't, you know, want to even make that
a possibility. With what we do and the way we
know the importance of narrative. What do you think is
missing from the way the right wing is consuming the
(18:31):
information surrounding these raids and these protests, and you know
the way that they're consuming these narratives. What's missing from
the messaging to maybe get a more human response from
people who are politically not aligned.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
Yeah, well, I'll start with the what's missing is the
idea that immigrants are ruining this country, the idea that
immigrants are the enemy, right, so's missing is the facts
that immigrants have built this country or continue to build
this country. In fact, the Los Angeles economy is based
(19:09):
on immigrant workers, is based on undocumented workers. Undocumented people
are doing literally doing the jobs that cannot be filled
by regular Californians born in the state. The majority of
people being taken are not criminals. People will say, oh,
they're criminals because they crossed the border illegally and they're
(19:31):
here illegal. That technically is a misdemeanor. It's equivalent to
a speeding ticket. That's what you're saying. You're saying, somebody
who has done something that's equivalent to a speeding ticket
deserves to be picked up at their workplace the throne
in a van and then disappears right ends up going
back to wherever. Ninety percent of the people who they're
(19:53):
picking up do not have any other criminal record besides
being here. And you know it's ironic as they're picking
them up at workplaces. They're all working and contributing to
the economy. They're helping the economy, which, by the way,
they also pay taxes. So what's missing is the real facts.
What's happened with this administration happened the first time this
(20:14):
administration came to power is that they have othered the
immigrant and made the scapegoat of the undocumented people, that
undocumented people are the reason that so many problems are
happening in the United States, or the reasons why your
price of eggs is so expensive, are the reasons why
gasoline is so expensive. All of that is bs It's
(20:36):
not based in real facts. So what's missing is the
truth that immigrants actually contribute to this country.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
Now, I'm not saying we.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
Should have open borders and everybody should just come over.
There should be a path for citizenship, there should be
laws changed, policies put in place. But what I am
saying is that the way the narrative is run right now,
the way the story is being told right now, is
that that illegal immigrant that you're staring at right now
is the reason why you don't have more money in
(21:06):
your pocket, And that simply is not true. That is
a one hundred percent lie. Or that that immigrant that
you're staring at across the street who's selling oranges in
that corner, that immigrant is a rapist, a killer, a
part of the cartel, that those are complete atrocities.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
It's not true.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
If they're just straight out lying to people The fact
is that person who's standing at the corner selling the
oranges is a hard working human being who probably has
been here for fifteen twenty years, and during those fifteen
to twenty years has been contributing through his taxes, through
his work to this society. In fact, he probably picked
(21:44):
those oranges or works in the farms during the day
and then works at night and on the weekends, and
has been moving his family up. He has nothing to
do with why your life is the way your life is,
so we've become the scapegoats. That's the big part of
what's missing. At the heart of that is looking at Okay,
so why am I miserable? Why is the price of
(22:08):
aggs so expensive? Why is everything getting worse and worse
and worse. Why am I so angry? Those are the
real questions that we need to be looking at, and
we need to be looking as Americans in the mirror
for those answers. When people are upset, it's easy to
point the finger somewhere. And the people who Trump has
decided to point the finger to, and the right wing
(22:29):
conspiracy has decided to point the finger too, is immigrants.
So what's missing is the truth and compassion, compassion for
these people, compassion for our people.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Well, thank you for humanizing the immigrants, because that's something
that is very much missing from conversations. Like these people
are working, they're taking care of their families, they're elevating
their families, and I think the more humanized they are,
(23:00):
the less hotherable they can be. But I don't want to, like,
I don't want to harp on this, but I want
to make sure that we cover all of our bases
right because there are people that are gonna have some
challenging conversations after listening to us to have this conversation.
So I'm gonna I'm gonna circle back. You know, we
(23:20):
talked about whether or not these protests were bona fide
protest or were they riots? And you painted a picture
a picture that is very similar to the to what
I experienced out here, and typically it's typical of many
protests that I've been to. I've never been to a riot.
The last riots I know about we're in ninety two,
and I definitely was not outside for that. I was
(23:41):
a small child. But you know, everything else qualifies as
a protest. So you can bring your children and friends
and expect to have a good time and also let
your voice be heard. But again, there are there's a
reason that the right is consuming a particular version of
(24:03):
this is because it exists. There are pictures of way
Mos on fire, there are videos of protesters throwing rocks
at police cars, and these things exist over there. Now,
they're not, to be fair consuming content of police officers
(24:23):
shooting journalists or you know, taking down protesters and slamming
them on the ground and batoning them while they're on
the ground and running over them with horses and whatnot.
But the fact remains that, you know, this is a
part of the story. So how do you provide context
for the fires and the rocks? How do you provide
(24:44):
context for all of that? Because that's what a lot
of folks are using to say. Nope, these are riots,
these are bad people. We need to get them out
of the country. We have about a minute, so help
us out.
Speaker 3 (24:56):
Yeah, listen, Yes, there were places where way Moos were
on fire, but that's what happens after the Lakers win.
That's what happens after the Dodgers win.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
And go ahead, Well, no, let me say I protests,
in my estimation, are supposed to be disruptive. If it's
all peaceful and a kumbayad, then you know, nothing changed.
But anyway, go ahead, go ahead. After the games, go ahead.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
Yeah, after the Lakers win, we see taxis getting burnt.
Also ubers on fire. Also Yeah. LA is a very
passionate city. We have a long history of protests. We
have a long history right the walkouts. We have a
long history of being out in the streets. And when
we are super happy, we celebrate by burning things, and
(25:43):
also when we want to make a statement, we celebrate
by burning things. So it's part of our upbringing in
Los Angeles that we stand up for ourselves that we're
not the city that you mess with. I mean, there's
a reason we are the city that's being targeted right now,
right because he hates us, because we didn't vote for
him at all. We got to keep that into context
when you have huge amounts of people and then just
(26:06):
a few people who end up. I think it was
two waymos, three weaymos. Not that big of a deal.
Not a riot. There is not a riot happening in
Los Angeles.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Thank you, thank you fantastic. Well, you know, I think
that this is very important for people to know because
where you get your information and whether or not that
information is consistent with the version of truth that you
want to be true. I think that really matters. But
(26:37):
you know, there's a group of folks in the middle
who are genuinely, legitimately curious and a group of people
who I think really want to convince people that they're
consuming bad media or their heart is in the wrong place,
and I think this context really does help out with that.
So thank you for, like I said, humanizing in the
immigrant story, and also thank you for giving us perspective
(26:57):
on what's going on in Los Angeles. Stick around, going
to be back with a little bit more
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