It's Where I Am with Zandra Polard

Wesley Knight 0:00
This is a KU n b Studio's original program. You are listening to special programming brought to you by it's where I am.com the content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 jazz and more University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education. You

Zandra Polard 0:44
Good morning, Las Vegas. It's Sondra Pollard. It's where I am. Is the name of the show, the show that focuses on mental health and wellness. I have invited West Knight back to the show this week, and he has invited one of his friends, Jinx Diaz. That's what we'll call you, right, Jinx. So thank you for coming here. We're gonna continue the conversation about civil unrest, talk about some things that have happened in the community last week. Also, little note here. You know, in my household, we seem to have the news on like all the time. I want to say 24 hours a day, but it's like most of our consumption of television is the news. Yeah? And you know that is directly. There's a correlation, yeah, between depression and anxiety and too much news consumption, especially negative news, yeah, and it's mostly been negative, yeah, right. So last week, when we aired, it was right before the protest, right? Yes, the no Kings Day, yeah. So I know that I wasn't able to make it, but we wanted to talk about how it you know, how things went that day, and so they were fairly peaceful, right? Yes, no, big disruptions, and most of America was protesting with us as well,

Wesley Knight 2:27
right? 5 million, yeah, 5 million plus, yeah, yeah,

Zandra Polard 2:31
which goes along with the 3.5 rule. That's right, that's right. So small numbers can make major change. Absolutely, yeah,

Wesley Knight 2:42
very cool. Very cool. Yeah, I wasn't able to make it out unfortunately, either I was, I have an issue with my car, so last thing I need, with my bad luck is I go out and I need to get out of there, and I can't, yeah, but I was, I was I being part of the show last week? I feel like I in that way. I feel like I did my part. That's

Zandra Polard 3:01
right, that's right. We did absolutely, yeah, absolutely. Tell us, give us a little bit of your background.

Jinx Diaz 3:08
So my parents are from Puerto Rico. They were born and raised there. I am a first generation American. They came out to the states to have me. I was originally born in New Jersey, but I've lived here in Vegas for, I want to say, about 1314, years. Okay, unfortunately, I've lost a lot of my Spanish, but I try and stay connected with my background and my culture, and try and keep in touch with my family in Puerto Rico, and a lot of my family members that are overseas don't really like what's happening here in the States?

Zandra Polard 3:41
Well, I'm sure your parents don't either. Yeah. How do you think they feel? Do you think they have a sense of fear?

Jinx Diaz 3:49
I feel like my mom definitely does,

Zandra Polard 3:53
because they say, you know, they're only getting the bad guys right. Quote, unquote. But we know that to not be

Jinx Diaz 4:01
true. Definitely, yeah, and especially since we've had multiple cases of, you know, like, actual civilians that were born here just be taken in and taken to jail without, like, due process or anything, is pretty scary. It should be scary for everyone, not just, you know, people who are from outside of the country,

Zandra Polard 4:21
right? And then, you know, it's like when I'm watching the news, and, you know, they're pitting the left and the right, okay? And that's a huge problem, because we're all Americans, yeah? And so by doing this pitting, now we're getting elected officials, you know, detained, yeah, handcuffed, you know, manhandled, yeah, so that's a, you know, I mean, I just, when I look at it, it's just so unbelievable, yeah, that this is where we stand, you know. And you know, you think that fear of. A civil unrest, yeah, you know, and I don't want to see that happen, you know, it could be my anxiety, yeah, but I know I'm not the only one that feels that. No, yeah. What do you guys think about it?

Wesley Knight 5:15
I think, I think you're exactly right that the whole left versus right thing is kind of, it's more important than that, as we talked about last week, you know, it's, it's really is just like the working class versus the the 1% or the working class versus, you know, these people in government, who, whether, regardless of what they say, their actions, to me, show that they want to have power and have unchecked power, and they have, like, just insidious goals that are, like, part and parcel of let's round up everybody who is, you know, black and brown or looks a certain way, fits description, so to speak, so on and so forth. And then, well, they don't say that, but they don't say that exactly, exactly they don't want to. If they say it, then they'd have to cop to it. But if they use clever language, or indirect language, or twist or Co Op terms, and they can talk around it, and they have that quote, unquote possible deniability of, well, I didn't say that, you know that's not what I meant, but we're not we're not stupid. I don't think so. What about you?

Jinx Diaz 6:28
So I agree with both of you guys, clearly, but it's really frightening, not just for me, but for a lot of people that I know. I have a very close friend who was not an American born citizen, and he is afraid to even go to work right now, and it makes me feel really bad, because, you know, he has to make a living. He is so afraid of getting detained at his job or just on the street or on his way to work that it's keeping him from being able to live his daily life, and it's really unfortunate to see. I want to express how sad, saddening it is when I see other Latinos that are, I wouldn't say, on the side of ice, but are very clearly on the wrong side of history.

Zandra Polard 7:23
I have Latino friends that voted for Trump, and I do not understand, you know who you are. It's you know who you are.

Jinx Diaz 7:30
It's disheartening, really,

Zandra Polard 7:31
yeah. I don't get it, yeah, yeah. I'm like, do you understand what that means? They're like, yeah. And I'm like, Okay,

Wesley Knight 7:38
and let me guess, one of their talking points was, oh, well, I came into the country the right way, quote, unquote, that's gonna be maybe I just didn't get it. Yeah, it doesn't make sense on its face. But that's usually some of the, some of the excuses that you hear is like, Oh, well, I did it the right way. They can too, so on so forth. But at the end of the day, it's like, it's like, you know that you're gonna get crushed under the same boat. You know that it's your fault? No, they don't know that. They don't. Yeah, they don't think it's gonna happen to them, everybody else but me, exactly, exactly. They're the exception. Yeah, American Exceptionalism is always, it'll happen everybody else but me. It'll happen everywhere else but here. And then if it does happen, oh, it's not my problem. It's not me. Yeah, it's always the deflection, yeah. And

Jinx Diaz 8:22
my rebuttal to that is always, well, my friend, he has a citizenship. Every two or three years, he has to pay about $200 to renew his citizenship. And a lot of people don't see a problem with that, but that's clearly an issue, because worst case scenario, let's say that he doesn't have a job when it's two years, when that two years is up and he can afford to pay for his citizenship, what's going to happen then?

Zandra Polard 8:50
I didn't even know you had to pay. Yeah, I thought once you became a citizen, you were a citizen.

Wesley Knight 8:55
But no, that's it. There's a cost. There's a cost to becoming a citizen along, like, you hear about the waiting periods and that kind of thing. But the other part that doesn't get talked about is there is a cost. And it might be what a lot of people consider, like, affordable, like, oh, $200 every three years. But it's like, I don't have to pay $200 every three years. I just, I'm just, I'm just here. And it feels like it feels like that rule exists only to keep a line between, oh, here's someone who's born here, we're not going to question him. I'm a white guy. And then here's someone who who came here and they naturalize themselves, and now they have to basically as at a cost, renew that, but it's like you're the same human being you were three years ago. I'm the same human being I was any amount of time ago, but you have a barrier of this cost that someone else doesn't. And they say like, oh well, it's part of the process, or it's part of the privilege of being a citizen or something. But it just, it just feels like straight up inequality

Zandra Polard 10:02
to me. So can I ask this personal question, what is the difference, like your parents, right? Do they have to pay every three years? Or what is different? The difference, if they don't, between them and your friend?

Jinx Diaz 10:13
So my parents actually didn't have to pay for their citizenship. My mom did have to take the citizenship test to get here, but she doesn't have to pay anything after that test, she was just kind of considered, you know, an American citizen. Okay, same with my dad, like he didn't have to go through any, like, long process or anything. It was just, you know, come apply, take that test, and then you're good.

Zandra Polard 10:36
So your friend, then, would he be comparable to, like, the hotel workers and the farm workers that come, like, seasonally, oh yes, you are a work visa.

Jinx Diaz 10:49
I'm not too sure. Actually,

Zandra Polard 10:51
you just know it's your friend and Dang, on it, yeah? Okay, got

Jinx Diaz 10:56
it, yeah, I used to work with him, so I'm not sure if it's on a work visa. I don't think so, but I could be wrong, but,

Zandra Polard 11:04
but that's not even the issue. The issue is, is that the due process thing? Right? That's not happening, right? Yeah. So this dude, this political official, was detained for escorting someone this was in New York, yeah, yeah, escorting someone out because they didn't get due process. He was asking for paperwork, and he ended up getting

Wesley Knight 11:32
arrested. Yeah, that's and that's kind of the pattern we've seen, and, I mean, it's the most flagrant misuse of power and abuse of power. I think we've seen in a long time where these people are getting apprehended by ice when, and they're being like it. They're being tricked. Either they show up for their appointment, yeah, they show up for their appointment where they're supposed to go the process that they're supposed to do. Again, the whole background of this whole thing is, come here the right way. And so they're doing that, and in all of these processes. Oh, tech, on a technicality, we're going to take you. Oh, your paperwork, something's wrong, we're going to take you. Oh, plain clothes, guy is just going to grab you when you walk into the courtroom. Like they've done it to judges. They've done it to mayors and mayoral candidates lately, elected officials, elected officials. They're just, it's, it's anyone. It's, it's,

Zandra Polard 12:26
unlike Senator Padilla said, exactly, you know, if they will treat me this way, how are they going to treat the regular

Wesley Knight 12:34
Exactly, exactly, if I'm supposed to be this particularly special? Yeah, exactly No. Really. It shows that there's no the safety is in the safety is in numbers of the people, not necessarily from the government of the system that says it's here to do right? But here they are, you know, breaking families apart and taking people from their family, like on the street and stuff. I mean,

Zandra Polard 13:00
well, I just don't like the narrative of, you know, Democrats are for people being in this country that should not be, yeah, yeah, you know, a criminals or whatever.

Wesley Knight 13:12
Yeah, that's the Yeah. No, that whole thing is, that whole thing is, like, the one extreme will tell you that the other side has to be doing the other extreme or else, yeah, wouldn't be the other party, right? That's nonsense. Like everyone, like we've already, we've already covered it, but the majority of people being swept up in these raids or being wrongfully detained or sent to El Salvador or anything, they're just, they're they're normal people. Almost none of them have any sort of criminal record. And even fewer of those that do have a record, way fewer of those have any violence on their record whatsoever. So it's just an excuse, you know, and they want to say, Well, I think it

Zandra Polard 13:51
was sort of an admission, yeah, when Trump was saying, you know, they're going to ease back on the farm workers and the hospitality, yeah, you know, field, because, if you're only going after criminals, yeah, why would you need to do that exactly?

Wesley Knight 14:05
Yeah, no. Oh, why do we have to ease up on the hospital workers? Oh, because Hispanic a lot of hospitality workers. Yeah, because Hispanic people make up a lot of your farm laborers and your construction your, like your hard physical laborers and like all these sectors, all benefit from an open migration process, and here they are saying that, Oh, we just want to, we just want to keep it the good people in and the bad people out. But clearly they're just saying, Oh, you're darker than a white person with a tan. Get in the van. Yeah?

Zandra Polard 14:39
That's why they threw Padilla down on the ground, yeah, and he was the most brown person in the room that I

Wesley Knight 14:44
saw. And they always the first deflection they always give is, oh well, decorum, oh well, your behavior, oh well, your emotional outburst, oh well, whatever. It's just a classic example of we say we want civility. We say we want. Politeness. And then every single time a non white person does so, they move the goal post. And it's, you know, it's the same thing. It's Padilla speaking up on behalf of people who look like him, who are being mistreated. He gets mistreated. He gets told that it's because some decorum thing separate, but similar every time, every time Jasmine Crockett says anything, it's just like, oh, that black woman is loud and and therefore, you know she's being, she's being rude or disrespectful or ghetto, and all the, all the, all the terms they use, just to deflect from the fact that nothing wrong was being said, you just don't like that someone spitting facts, and you don't like that. Someone is not dehumanizing the other group of people. Simple enough.

Jinx Diaz 15:46
Yeah. And when on what you said with Jasmine Crockett, I thought it was so unfair that when Marjorie Taylor, Greene insulted Jasmine Crockett straight to her face, straight and Jasmine Crockett didn't have any of that. It was crickets when Roger Taylor green made her, you know, stab. But as soon as Jasmine Crockett stood up for herself, then it was, you know, oh, you need to act orderly. You need to, you know, calm it down a little bit. Suddenly, that needs, yeah, exactly

Zandra Polard 16:15
because black women are aggressive. I want to say, What advice can we give those out there? One piece of advice for me would be, take a break from the news. Don't keep it on all the time. Yeah, I know it's stressful and you want to be updated, but I'm telling you, it's on repeat.

Wesley Knight 16:40
Yeah, yeah, it's on it's on repeat the 24 hour news cycle. Yeah, it'll be there tomorrow Exactly.

Zandra Polard 16:46
Take a break, you know, bake something, make a snack, yeah, pick up, tidy up, yeah. You know, these are things we can do to keep us healthy mentally,

Wesley Knight 16:57
yeah, yeah. I would say also that, um. Addendum to that, there are plenty of wonderful resources out there, news sources that do daily or twice daily, or however many times a day, like news roundups. So they'll get you, they'll get you the what you need to know without a heavy time sink, without, Flash news, yeah, with get you just, you know, get your get your facts, get out. So that way, a one time in the morning, when I'm getting my coffee, I see what's going on. Oh, in the afternoon, when I'm making dinner, and I'm gonna look do this off to the side, oh, there's what's going on that I may be just breaking news that helps. I would say, stay connected and rooted, or establish your community. If like you. I think what you're saying about the black, the Republican, Democrat, like us versus the other kind of thing in our communities, it's all of us as we're all working class people. If you're hearing this and you're in a community. Chances are, unless you make like six figures plus a year, you're working class, your neighbors, regardless of disagreements on individual things, we are all like, we can all come together as, like, just a community. So that can be getting to know your neighbors, knowing what their names are, you know, learning about what they do on their day to day, what what's going on behind closed doors, what are their routines like? And where can we help each other make food for one another, share resources of one another, coordinate if you are doing like a public event or a protest type of thing, like it's unfortunately, we don't always like getting to know people around us, because so many people nowadays feel like strangers. But you know that that goes a long way, like really knowing just who's a couple doors down is cool. A whole block together can be a whole lot of people. Unite the people. You can get some work

Zandra Polard 19:00
done. You know what's pretty cool are those community gardens, yes, yeah, that's a great way to get to know your neighbors.

Wesley Knight 19:06
Shouts out the adobo collective here in town. Hey, yeah, where's that located? I don't know. We've had them. We've had them through the station and on other talk

Zandra Polard 19:16
shows. Oh, okay, so if they want to find out more information,

Wesley Knight 19:19
yeah, you want to find out more information, you know,

Zandra Polard 19:22
yeah, all right, yeah, community gardens, community

Wesley Knight 19:25
gardens. That's that's a great thing, food for everybody. And food is like food and music, man, you can bond everybody together through food and music. Oh, yeah, I'm telling you. What do you think?

Jinx Diaz 19:35
Yeah, that sounds so great. I would definitely have to check that

Zandra Polard 19:40
out. What's a piece of mental health advice you can give our listeners to take a break away from the news and do something like what?

Jinx Diaz 19:50
In terms of recharging? I want to piggyback on what you said about building community that's really important. Stay connected with your friends and make sure that you. Both are informing each other of what's going on and just plan something out to kind of just hang out and de stress after such a stressful time, especially right now, if you go to protests, you know, make sure that there's a game plan, a safety plan and everything, and make sure you have plenty of water and other resources for yourself and other people, whether that's people that you came with or people that you meet while you're there. And look up your rights. That's a big thing. Know Your Rights so you know things don't go south and everything goes peacefully. I know it can be really harsh and stressful to be sucked into the news and all of the negative that's happening around here, but I want people to understand that that shouldn't discourage you from being informed, that shouldn't discourage you from wanting to advocate for a better tomorrow. Yes, and just have faith. Really, it doesn't happen overnight, and it takes more than one person to do it, but if we all do it, then it's going to come a lot faster, you know, a brighter future.

Zandra Polard 21:14
All right, oh, amen, amen.

Wesley Knight 21:19
And then I think I'll piggyback right off of that. If you're going out anywhere and doing anything, not only be organized with your friends, make sure you have water, have an exit strategy. Know your rights. It doesn't help to be about as inconspicuous as possible. So plain clothing cover up identifiable characteristics, like tattoos. Wear nondescript clothing.

Zandra Polard 21:46
Wait, you're confusing me, yeah, yeah, wear nondescript clothing,

Wesley Knight 21:50
yeah. So like stuff that blends in, no logos, no like

Zandra Polard 21:55
oh, so that who cannot identify you exactly,

Wesley Knight 21:58
exactly because a man, there you go. Oh, man, basically we've, we've seen that. They'll use like self, they'll track cell phones for like the areas that protests are happening. So it's best, if possible, to have like your strategy and then leave your phone at home. Do your best.

Zandra Polard 22:22
Yeah, wait. Okay, so back it up. We have time for you to explain, yeah, because I don't know it's okay. So they track the phones to see if you're there. But so what if you're there?

Wesley Knight 22:32
Exactly. It's, it's so, it's so, in case you do get picked up, or you do get arrested, or whatever, they will try to have some sort of a paper trail of like you were here, we know you were in the vicinity. It's not so much that you did something. Is that they can say you were there. It's that they can say that you did something. It's easier for them to plausible deniability pin something. Oh, we know you were, you were here. Who's to say you didn't do this? I you know, who's to say that this, that the other. Why should we trust you? Why should we believe you? It's the same thing. It's just, it's just surveillance. It's just surveillance by a police state. So they, because they don't, they don't want us protesting. They don't want us recognizing the the real dangers and the real enemies in front of us. So if, if they can, you know, check if they can get into your phone and they can be like, Oh, well, this person on their social media, man, they're, they're pretty outspoken. They're pretty they're, they're an activist, you know, they're pretty radical, you know, they're pretty open minded. They they know a little bit too much. You know, that's kind of the thing like, like me being a journalist and having my degree out of here and being at a university like UNLV, that is like always been in like the top five for most diverse populations of students on campus anywhere in the country. I forgot that fact those You're welcome. These are these, these pieces of like diverse facts information, are what they're afraid of. They're afraid of a variety of people. They're afraid of multiple thoughts and ideas and collaboration. Yeah, they're afraid of collective power of the people they really are. So just in short, whatever you can do to keep yourself safe at any activities includes stay peaceful. Stay peaceful. Also remember that almost always you can. I'm not a betting man, but I'll bet on this is almost always when protests are happening, they stay peaceful. They are peaceful. And if any sort of disturbance or violence breaks out is almost always started by the police on scene, the authority on scene, they get caught on body cam footage later thinking that they got away with it. Thankfully, other. Are people who did bring their phones, did document and can say, Dude, you shoved that guy, and then 30 your ice buddies were there immediately,

Zandra Polard 25:09
yeah, because I didn't understand why earlier you were saying, don't bring your phone. I'm like, wait a minute, that's a valuable

Wesley Knight 25:14
you do and you don't. You do and you don't. So it's like, if you feel like, because of who you are or what your social responsibility is in the moment, maybe don't bring your phone if you're just there to report to document, absolutely bring your phone. Still be smart, you know. But you know, do what you gotta do. It's not one size fits all. It's meant to be like everyone can help. Everyone has a place that they can fit in and that they can do some good work. It's just what works for you versus what works for somebody else. It takes, it takes a multitude of people. It takes a village, like they say, not just to raise children, but to, like, make sure that there's a future for the children. So, right?

Zandra Polard 25:55
So we've been saying things that everyone has been telling you, you know, in terms of being safe, in terms of being peaceful, and also truths that have to deal with real fear of American people out there who are undocumented. So before we let you go, is there any other information you'd like to

Jinx Diaz 26:19
provide? Let's see.

Zandra Polard 26:23
I know you're worried about your friend, absolutely, who's afraid to even go to work and is gonna have a difficult time taking care of himself if he does not. Yeah, absolutely, you know,

Jinx Diaz 26:35
I'd say just if you have any friends that were either born outside of the country, born in the country, or have family members that are that immigrated here. Say, definitely check up. Just check on them. Yeah, because you You never know, like, a few hours a day a week, could be the difference between you never seeing your friend again, yeah, whether you know, they were detained, or worse, something might happen to them. So definitely make sure that you're keeping in touch with I like that you know your friends, especially your Hispanic friends, because I know this is a really difficult time for not just everyone, but you know, the Latino community especially, and again, just try and be informed and inform your friends. To

Zandra Polard 27:26
inform yourself, inform your friends. Stay, stay stay safe, stay in touch. Take breaks from the news outlets. Recharge, recharge and keep that mind healthy. It's where I am is on 91.5 jazz and more every Saturday at 7:30am we'll talk to you next week. Have a wonderful day. Have a good one. Talk to you later. Bye. You

Transcribed by https://otter.ai