This month, we're diving into the question, "Why should POC care about dismantling antisemitism?" Carolina Jews for Justice Executive Director Abby Lublin and local author, advocate, and Golden Moon Circles consultant Ray Hemachandra are at the table to help unpack these topics. Hang on tight because this conversation goes deep - fast!
Grappling with the antisemitic tropes of Jews as power brokers and cash controllers, we consider how antisemitism is used to fuel other forms of oppression by exploring the age-old lie of blaming Jews for societal problems and discussing ways to actively work towards dismantling it. What we learned here is there's work to do, discussions to have, relationships to build, and joy to multiply as we work together for a liberated Asheville where all can thrive. Yes, it's possible - as long as we're willing to expand our minds and hearts to mirror the reality of the "We" that has and continues to be oppressed by inequitable systems designed to split the people in order to serve, preserve, and protect the status quo.
Are you ready to challenge assumptions, build bridges, and be the change? Hit play to jump in!
We'll see you same time, same place next month. Until then, peace.
This month, we're diving into the question, "Why should POC care about dismantling antisemitism?" Carolina Jews for Justice Executive Director Abby Lublin and local author, advocate, and Golden Moon Circles consultant Ray Hemachandra are at the table to help unpack these topics. Hang on tight because this conversation goes deep - fast!
Grappling with the antisemitic tropes of Jews as power brokers and cash controllers, we consider how antisemitism is used to fuel other forms of oppression by exploring the age-old lie of blaming Jews for societal problems and discussing ways to actively work towards dismantling it. What we learned here is there's work to do, discussions to have, relationships to build, and joy to multiply as we work together for a liberated Asheville where all can thrive. Yes, it's possible - as long as we're willing to expand our minds and hearts to mirror the reality of the "We" that has and continues to be oppressed by inequitable systems designed to split the people in order to serve, preserve, and protect the status quo.
Are you ready to challenge assumptions, build bridges, and be the change? Hit play to jump in!
We'll see you same time, same place next month. Until then, peace.
We're profoundly, profoundly interconnected. We don't always live that way, we don't always acknowledge it, but if we're going to hear, we have to live it, experience it and create institutions that celebrate it. Can we create a we where no one's on the outside of it? Welcome to the Uplift. Real Talk for Real Change with Zedek Social Justice Fund.
Speaker 2:Hello, hello and welcome to the Uplift with Zedek Real Talk for Real Change. Today is a good day for great conversation. But first, so why are we here and why now? We're here to build authentic community relationships and help fuel social transformation in Asheville, north Carolina. We believe collective liberation is not only possible but probable as we share, listen and learn together. We're here for the process. However, the views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities they represent. So welcome to the party people. Let's jump in. My name is Michael Hoban and I'm the director of communications at Zedek, and I'm here with Libby Kiles, our director of community-led grant making. Good morning, libby. How are you feeling?
Speaker 1:Good morning. I'm amazing, how are you this morning?
Speaker 2:Doing well. We are also here and excited to bring new voices to the table, including social justice powerhouse and Jewish joy champion, abby Ludlin, executive director of Carolina Jews for Justice. Abby, it's great to have you here. Can you tell us a little bit more about you?
Speaker 3:I'm so happy to be here. Yeah, I'm a former public high school teacher, organizer, racial equity facilitator. I'm a mom and a multiracial family and I'm here because I care about the larger we.
Speaker 2:Sweet. We are also joined by local author, activist, consultant and Zedek's very own community-led grant making fellow, ray. Hemachandra Ray, it's great to see you. Can you share a little bit more about yourself?
Speaker 4:Absolutely, and it's fabulous to be here in this space with these amazing people, Amazing space with these amazing people. So I'm a consultant who works largely in disability, mental health and substance use and then across social justice issues. I am black, I am Jewish, I am South Asian in my heritage and culturally diverse, and I think we're going to be talking about that.
Speaker 2:Yes, we are. Can I just say again and Ray, you kind of mentioned that just how amazing it is to be in this space, at this place and in this time to talk about why POC people of color should care about dismantling anti-Semitism. But before we go there, let's talk about terms and definitions and get on the same page. So, to start, what is Jewishness and how do you identify as such? Abby, let's kick it off with you.
Speaker 3:Thank you all. Yeah, it's, as everything we're going to do, I think, in this time together, more complex. I and we have been Jewish since long before these modern ideas of ethnicity and race and religion and culture and all these social constructs, and so that can be confusing. I am Jewish because I am Jewish and I am not particularly religious nor identify with that as my practice, but I am spiritually connected to my people and my ancestry and we're an old people From the beginning of tracking time. In this way we're in the year 5,783 in Jewish time, so it's hard to really define what is Jewish other than I'm Jewish.
Speaker 2:I'll take it Ray.
Speaker 4:Boy. That really resonated with me, abby, because same for me, I don't identify as Jewish, I'm Jewish. I don't identify as black, I'm black. I think some of the terms and understandings have shifted over my lifetime. On 55. When I was a kid, there wasn't a question I was Jewish. My mother was Jewish, eastern European Jews her whole family, A lot of them, died in the Holocaust. I grew up in New York, on Long Island, culturally Jewish, ethnically Jewish, and similar to Abby. I'm not particularly religious in my Judaism and same with the black part. I had ancestors who were slaves and my father was raised by someone who was born a slave, his grandmother. So I was black. Now the claims of identity have shifted, so some of that conversation has shifted and it's sometimes challenging for someone of my age who's had my experiences, my lived experience, to fit in this moment.
Speaker 3:I do want to add. It's so resonant. I'm so happy to be here with you, ray. I also want to add that growing up, my identity as Jewish was more framed around what we're not. I learned more about what's not Jewish and Jewish just sort of from my parents and my community, and really only in coming into this work of living my Jewish values in justice have I understood what it really means to be Jewish and to lead with not what we're not, but how we enact our values in the world. That's beautiful.
Speaker 2:Thank you both for sharing. Alright, so now we're going to dig in a little deeper. Let's talk about what is anti-Semitism and how does it work.
Speaker 3:Kicking it to me, yeah, and I also want to share that. When we talk about Jews and Judaism, we often start with trauma, and I do. You said I'm a joy champion. I want to uplift that there is a lot of joy and connection in being Jewish, but our purpose here is to really get in and dismantle the hard stuff. But I just want to upfront load that there is a lot of joy and celebration in being Jewish that said, yeah, anti-semitism, we go there.
Speaker 3:So I am really grateful for having young children and being able to be in the world that I am and having to explain things in a way that my kids can understand, and so I want to give my kind of explanation of anti-Semitism in its most we can actually do something about it essence, and that is that anti-Semitism is a really old lie. It's a really old lie that Jews are to blame for society's problems, point blank, period. It is an oppression that targets Jews and any oppression, all oppressions. What they do is they tell a story about a people that dehumanizes them, and once you dehumanize people, you can set them up for targeting, for exploitation, really for the purpose of keeping power in the hands of people who already have it, not only keeping power in those hands, but making it unclear, hiding that they have that power. So the story that anti-Semitism tells is that Jews are responsible for suffering, and I just want to uplift A great activist and thinker.
Speaker 3:Donia Regendres says that, especially in a society that's looking for answers about why the United States, the richest nation in the history of the world, often feels really terrible to live in and to work in and to connect in, that doesn't make sense the richest nation in the history of the world, why it is so hard to survive and thrive here, and so a destructively convenient explanation for that is anti-Semitism. So that is, like I say, an old lie, a really old conspiracy theory that keeps getting utilized to keep us distracted and separated and it hurts Jews directly, but it really undermines all of our movements for social justice. That's anti-Semitism.
Speaker 2:Can you speak more as to how that undermines and how that functions?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I can give some really specific examples. So let's go back to a moment of incredible organizing and movement for a black liberation and equality civil rights movement. Right, the civil rights movement itself didn't make sense in the context of white supremacy. How could these people, who were perceived as less than human or not capable or not intelligent, how could they possibly organize for all of these gains, for their own equity and liberation? Well, what white supremacy does is then says it must have been the Jews. So it takes away the agency of anybody working towards their own liberation, any groups, by saying it's not really them, it's the Jews orchestrating it behind the scenes. And what that does is it both targets and exploits and blames Jews, while also keeping everybody non-Jewish or Jewish plus Jewish and all these identities as subhuman or not capable or just being manipulated. So we see that a lot now with black lives, not our movement, with immigrant rights, trans rights. We see that the Jews are blamed for liberation. We're also blamed for COVID and vaccines. We're gonna blame for anything people don't like.
Speaker 2:Okay, so, if I get this right in terms of this lie that we're telling, we have blacks are inferior, we have trans people are unnatural, and then we have Jewish people are the insidious behind the curtain orchestrator manipulating the whole game for their benefit.
Speaker 3:For the benefit of replacing white Christian folks who want to this nation, to be more white and Christian. So we've heard a lot about replacement theory lately. It's been cited in the manifestos of these mass murderers and various shootings, who claim that Jews are behind the hidden force behind these movements in order to replace some pure white race.
Speaker 1:So what it sounds to me like you're saying and correct me if I'm wrong that anti-Semitism is often used as a tool of white nationalism in order to, first and foremost, keep people separated by a common enemy, meaning it's the Jewish people. They control the media, they have all the money, they have all the things, so, in that sense, creating fear in white folks who want to keep this country more white and more Christian.
Speaker 4:So let me jump in actually there, because I don't completely agree with that when we're talking about anti-Semitism. So that is certainly part of the story of anti-Semitism today, the idea of Jews as power brokers and controllers. There's also, in the moment and historically, the idea of Jews as sub-human, as less as minimized, as othering right. You know, I think of anti-Semitism as an expression of the foundation of othering, of denying that people belong and are legitimate human beings. For me, anti-semitism in that expression is the same as racism. It's the same as all discriminatory mindsets and approaches, overt and covert, to different populations.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I want to thank you and I also want to see how these things work in tandem. So Jews, who have been at threat of state violence from pogroms in Eastern Europe and targeted minorities in many places in the earth, and particularly in the largest point of Jewish migration to United States, very quickly saw that their safety and survival was tied to a proximity to whiteness and so seeing that they could make deals with this ruling class that sought to keep its own power as a form of protection, because they were also targeted for being other. Well, one way is the less other you become, the more safe you become. But it's a very precarious safety because it can be taken at any time and it shifts based on the climate.
Speaker 3:But Jews have been targeted for being just different, being Jews not praying the same way, or having the same practices, or and also targeted for white Jews for passing, because it fuels this idea of this hidden manipulative hand. It's like, well, if there, the assimilation into into this country, into dominant culture, into whiteness, was actually seen as an infiltration by white nationalists, by whites right People who are in power and not Jewish right. So it's like assimilation for safety, but that's also infiltrating a ruling class. So these things always work into and they fuel each other right.
Speaker 4:I think we have to be careful, look at the historical arc of things. Jews have been in places of power. Jews have also been in abject poverty, marginalized and isolated and oppressed in overt ways not just subtle ways, but in overt ways as well and in terms of assimilation and passing as white. That's relevant not just to other groups, italians who weren't, for example, just a random example Irish.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yes, who were not seen as white when they came to the United States. And, by the way, as an aside, that means really looking things through an American lens. It differs around the world, but also it's relevant to the black community and the idea of passing and colorism, which has deep historical resonance for the black community.
Speaker 1:So I have a question, ray. I heard you say anti-Semitism is just like racism, but it feels to me like as a tool it's used very differently. So why is it, or can we? I wanna ask the question how is it that anti-Semitism is able to be used more like a machine, in that it separates, it feels like it separates groups out and it dehumanizes groups even more, because the idea is that this machine Jewish people are running the country, they're puppeteers and we're all just these little minions. How? Help me understand, because I think I might have just confused myself with my own question, but I'm trying to figure out. How is anti-Semitism? Even when we talk in social justice terms, it is always separated out from every other oppression. Why do you think that's so?
Speaker 4:Did that make?
Speaker 1:sense.
Speaker 4:It makes some sense. I'll try to stumble through it. How about that? For me, when I say anti-Semitism is the same as racism, it's because it's an othering. And I agree, there is that thread and it's a historical thread and it's a current thread in the United States and in the black community, specifically about Jews as power brokers. But it's been equally true historically at least as true as historically that Jews have been marginalized, oppressed, economically oppressed, physically oppressed, isolated, separated out. So it's a story that's been told. Abby called it the historical lie in a pretty powerful way. But it's just the expression we're having now, or maybe it's the dominant understanding of the expression of anti-Semitism as we have it now. But let me tell you, among the Klan, among Nazis, it's not that Jews are seen as so magnificent a people. It's the opposite. They're seen in the language and that includes Hitler and it includes some figures in the black community or termites.
Speaker 2:So, from a systems change perspective, right, because that's what we're about here at Zedek is that there's a system that's functioning just as it's been intended and designed to do and divide and conquer, and anti-Semitism works a little differently and yet it is definitely fueling that division.
Speaker 4:I think that's true, but I also think it's an excuse. There's a lot of racism in the Jewish community. There's a lot of anti-Semitism in the black community. It's easy to blame white power structures. It's not an excuse. We have to do better.
Speaker 3:I also want to uplift. So there's a lot and we tend to get deep into terms. There's a massive invisibilizing of Jews of color in these conversations and there is a great, a deep race and class diversity among Jews. We are transnational people all over the earth in many countries, many languages, many identities, and so I just want to be clear to not set up this binary of like Jews as white. So when we talk about anti-Semitism, racism, there are a lot of people walking around with multi-everything who are navigating this all the time in their bodies and in their spaces. So I just want to make sure that we uplift it's the fastest growing of young Jewish population. My children are multi-racial Jews. I just want to make sure we acknowledge and center them. I do want to make a distinction.
Speaker 3:So I do think racism and anti-Semitism are both forms of oppression. That's where I see common. They operate differently. And the way they operate differently I want to share is that anti-black racism, especially in the United States, kind of requires I don't want to get too heady here but like a fixed hierarchy, like whites at the top, blacks at the bottom. Yes, people transgress, yes, there's colorism, but like that's a fixed kind of binary and anti-Semitism is trickier and that it can be described as more cyclical rather than this kind of fixed hierarchy, because there have been periods where Jews experienced some security and some safety or some success, and that just fuels it, goes back into this cycle of then blame and then, you know, it keeps coming around. But the confusion is that there are periods of safety and security and success and people within Jews who achieve more success and it, rather than keeping Jews perpetually at the bottom. Anti-semitism becomes most intense when Jews achieve success. Does that make sense? So there's, it operates a bit differently.
Speaker 4:I'm not sure that's entirely true, because in the way that we created a false binary about blacks and Jews, so we're creating kind of a false state of what black America is. There's a lot of diversity, including economic diversity, and it's certainly the case that when blacks achieve power there's a backlash against that. When President Obama became president, there was a backlash against that. My parents in New York City, there was a black elite in New York City, but that gets a response. It's not that when blacks get into positions of success, that's not responded to. It is Now. Blacks may have historically, overall as a population, been maybe less successful as a group although I would really have to think that through, I'm not sure that's true. I think we've had as many successful great black Americans as any other group. So I think I questioned that analysis a little bit.
Speaker 3:I also want to shift in terms of the solidarity analysis that the success of some people does not make for systemic change. In fact, it's often used as an excuse to not examine systemically what is happening, and so we can point to the successes of various Jewish folks and black folks and lots of people, but we still don't have the health care that we need, the education system that we need, the housing that we need, and oftentimes this small successes get used to really distract us from organizing together and what we all need for all of us to thrive. I agree with that and for me it also ties down to what's our vision.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:A lot of what we talk about in this conversation and in social justice movements is retrospective, it's in the moment in history till now. And how do we repair that? And reparation may be necessary, both literally and figuratively, but it ties to a vision of where we're going. What does a good society look like? What is the beloved community like in the United States? Given our history and where we are now? Where are we going? What is our vision for that? And that's the conversation I think we need to focus on in this conversation, all conversations around social justice, because that's what that's our northern life, that's how we decide what our values are. It isn't by looking retrospectively and rejecting that informs who we've become, but it's by looking forward, in who we want to be.
Speaker 3:Amen, ache, hallelujah, and I think, for our vision, our North Star is collective liberation, and these things need to be dismantled, all of them, all of these oppressions on our way to collective liberation. And the way we get there is through deep, trusting relationships, sharing struggle and understanding that we have a mutual interest, all of us, in defeating these forces of white supremacy, of imperialism, of racialized capitalism, and you know, and anti-Semitism has been one of the things that serve to distract and divide us. So, yes, care about Jews. That is important, of course, but and also it is a thing that is keeping all of us from this collective liberation, and so it does need to be addressed and dismantled.
Speaker 4:I agree with that and I also want to echo I think we need to own it.
Speaker 3:Who's the way here?
Speaker 4:All of us need to own it. When I said earlier, there is too much racism among Jews, there's too much anti-Semitism among blacks, yes, that might have been imposed. Yes, it might be a strategy to divide, and it's ours, you know, we own that. That's a starting point to look inside each of ourselves and see what we bring to, what we're bringing to that and how we're transforming that inside ourselves before we can work effectively for collective change. And also in social justice circles.
Speaker 4:That conversation is different than in broader populations, absolutely. We need to recognize that, that we're coming from a language of privilege, a perspective of privilege, a different kind of education, a different kind of access to information than the general population and talk about what it really means to transform society. It's not necessarily the four of us in this little room having this conversation. That's not to devalue this conversation, but to have real strategies about what that means for broader populations and engage in honest dialogue there. Because what we bring, what we think we're bringing into the space, about what we know well, the perspective of others who are not in social justice spaces may be different and we need to acknowledge that and understand that more deeply than I think we generally do.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and challenging assumptions everywhere. I mean some of the small agitations I do is when I introduce myself to an audience, I'll say something, especially maybe a Jewish audience I'll say and I identify as recently white, and they kind of look at me sideways and it opens up a conversation about how my ancestors, when they came here, saw that they saw their safety and potential for success in assimilating to whiteness. And it opens up this conversation about what that means in Jewish community. And what I want for us, and what I think Carolina Geese for Justice is doing and doing increasingly well, is holding a space for us to examine racism, to examine our identities, but keep our and I want to keep our messes internal. Does that make sense? I want us to really understand and really get ready so that we show up better in these broader coalitions for our collective liberation. But we need to do the work internally and have that space and have that understanding and really examine our complicity in a lot of the systems that oppress us and everyone around us.
Speaker 4:Flip it back. Who is our when you say that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, specifically talking about Jewish identifying community in North Carolina in that way, thank you. But it's complicated how we show up, because we, meaning white identifying Jews in North Carolina, will show up in these spaces for racial justice, for economic justice, and are perceived as white and we are and many of us and also are an oppressed people and that is something that's hard for people to kind of see and understand and we need to understand what that means and what that comes up for us. So if we hear something that is pointing us towards like being not being seen or being targeted, or feeling that sense of isolation, to not kind of run away from it but to be able to have the trust in those moments of conversation, say here's what's going on here and here's what. And that only comes from chopping wood and carrying water together as a movement.
Speaker 4:Well, I think that goes to I've heard the term and I think, libby, you've used it with me in conversation oppression Olympics, and that's what we're looking retrospectively. How can we transform that? How can we chop wood together? Well, we're chopping wood together to build for fire. We're chopping wood together for what we're going to have together in the future, and that gets where it's vision based. What does it look like for people to have collective liberation and to understand that as long as there is antisemitism, there will be racism, as long as there's racism there will be antisemitism.
Speaker 4:How do we inform people that, more than that, engage in respectful dialogue, because we need to be informed as well. There's a lot of learning for each of us in that dynamic as well.
Speaker 3:I really love zooming out when oppression Olympics happens and say, well, or when we hear these tropes like well, jesus, control, this is. Who's benefiting from this? Like, let's step back. And when we engage in this kind of comparison or we bring up these lies or these old narratives like who's actually benefiting from that? And when you ask that question, people kind of stop and look back and say, right, I am holding onto these things. I'm trying to say who's more deserving in this space or for this fight? All that does is continue to entrench groups that have the power and want to solidify it even more. It doesn't benefit us at all. And I love asking that question Like who's actually benefiting from this in-fighting or from this division or from this distraction?
Speaker 4:But we recognize also that it's a pretty primal human force to other to say us and them and why we're better than them or there and blame them. That's very, it's a very basic human dynamic. It's throughout human history.
Speaker 3:It's basic when it comes up because we're not getting what we need right. Like you, are more inclined to blame when you are in pain, and so lessening the pain helps to. It doesn't solve it all, because there is some human instinct and tribalism, but it decreases the need to explain why you're not able to be healthy or to raise your kids in a safe community and a comfortable home and have adequate education. And that is where I want our movement to focus is collectively organizing to get what we all need so we're not susceptible to this blame and division.
Speaker 2:No doubt. Listen, I can tell right now that this conversation could keep rolling and rolling. I am so grateful for what you've shared so far. Unfortunately, we got to wrap it up.
Speaker 3:Can we get to the question about what we need in community? Yeah, that's where I'm going. I love it.
Speaker 2:I love it. Patient's my Jewish friend, no. So yeah, final thoughts, I'm gonna throw this out to you both what would community support for disbanding anti-semitism look like and feel like to you?
Speaker 3:Ram and I have you kick that one first.
Speaker 4:Well, michael, community support. I'm not sure what that means, so I got stuck right away. I have to be honest with you.
Speaker 4:I think, as I've been saying throughout this conversation, what's often missing and necessary to be successful in this work and this work by this work I mean lessening anti-semitism, lessening racism in our society is a vision for what can be, and even what Abby just said about that historical human dynamic. The only thing that gets us past that dynamic is a vision of how we are all connected and a vision of what that community and society can be. That's better, it has to be better. People have to understand it as better. So we're not blaming one another. So I think that's the work for me, that I see and I think it's a work largely for people spending their lives doing social justice that this becomes a goal, that we see why we are doing this, where we are going, and we express that vision. I think that was true more in the historical civil rights movement than it is now in social justice movements. It's missing from contemporary social justice movements.
Speaker 4:It's a necessary step for them to actually be successful, not to be successful in fundraising not to be successful in claims and blaming, but to be successful in actually moving us, moving us writ large in a more positive direction and being able to get there. Gotcha that's right.
Speaker 3:It's a beautiful. You have to have the imagination for what's possible right, and imagining a world without racism, anti-semitism and all intertwined depressions is an exercise we like to do with people like what would it? We're so used to living in this, what would it look like without it? I wanna add, though, some very specific community support requests around dismantling anti-semitism here in Asheville. For those of you listening, here are the requests.
Speaker 3:One is to make no assumptions about Jews. The person of color sitting next to you might be Jewish. The person without owning class privilege next to you might be Jewish. So make no assumptions about who is and is not Jewish. Another is about showing up when anti-semitism just when anti-semitism happens and that is our vision is that we aren't we, meaning Jewish people, are not the first and the only ones holding the burden of responding to anti-semitism, just as folks targeted by racism shouldn't be the ones holding the response and the repair.
Speaker 3:Another is about belonging. So if the goal of oppression is isolation, the counter to that is belonging, and so don't just involve us when it's about anti-semitism. We wanna show up with you for reparations. We wanna show up for housing justice. We wanna do the work together, and that's how we dismantle by building these trusting relationships. And the other one is I'm asking folks to really examine how they talk about and hear about Jews in community spaces, in churches, is to really think about this old lie and how it's showing up in a lot of our narratives that we're hearing in community. So asking people to really pay closer attention to how Jews are talked about and who that talking about serves.
Speaker 4:Just to say that requires a lot of bravery. It requires a lot of bravery to be in a community space and to say wait, I wanna talk about this. I wanna go deeper with this.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 4:That's a hard thing we're asking people to do. This is hard work. I don't recognize that.
Speaker 3:This is hard work and I think we're up for it. And also we have people call us, call people call each other in to hold that hard work together. But yeah, it doesn't have to be like I'm raising my hand in the middle of my pastor, saying something in the middle of everybody and going, wait, hold up now. But it's like reading my neighbor who I'm breaking bread with and saying I heard this thing, I wonder where that comes from. I wonder who that actually serves. So it starts small on the ground, but I'm asking people at least to put that in the consciousness. What am I hearing? Where is that coming from and who does it serve?
Speaker 2:And the time for bravery is now. You ready to be anything you wanna add?
Speaker 1:I do. Actually. I wanna just say the original question when we came up with this show idea is why should people of color care about anti-Semitism? And the reason why people of color should care about anti-Semitism is pretty simple All of our liberation is tied together, right? If I'm not free, you're not free, and if you're not free, michael's not free. If Michael's not free, then Ray's not free. And so, at the heart of the matter, of everything that we talked about today, is basic humanity, and so making sure that, and all the work that we do in social justice, that we continue to lift up humanity and that every person, just because you are a person, you deserve a certain quality of treatment, whether you are Jewish, whether you are black, latin A, whatever the distinction, you are human.
Speaker 4:That's beautiful, Libby.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much, and Abbey and Ray, thank you. Your passion, humor and heart remind us of our purpose and our power. And that, my friends, is a gift, beautiful humans. Thank you for listening and leaning in. This is the Uplift with Zedek Real talk for real change. We'll see you same time, same place next month. Until then, peace.
Speaker 1:This is America. I can't breathe.
Speaker 4:I can't breathe. Peace on love, justice on the right, peace on love, justice on the right. This is America. This is the reason Kaverneck was taking a knee, heartbroken. When I saw that video I almost couldn't finish it. It was a pile of power. We got to start making changes. There's a virus in police departments across this country.
Speaker 1:If I rule the world, cops are wrestling. Good cops know who these bad cops are. I'm free all my sons. You have every right to be angry. Can you tell me why? Every time I step outside, I see my daughter. You have no right to perpetrate violence on the very communities that you are standing up for. A lot of people have been using my father's words that all men are created in. The only pathway to do this is through nonviolent means. I'm letting you know that it ain't no gun that can kill myself.
Speaker 4:We will bring you justice, I promise. When God got us, then we could be all right.
Speaker 2:We'll start making some changes.