In this week’s episode of the #UNFLTRD podcast, hosted by DJayRaf, we put together an exceptional panel of guests to speak on the subject of racism and social injustice within the Desi South Asian community. We also had deep conversations about what we, as South Asians, can do to improve the experience & the plight that our oppressed brothers & sisters face.
Watch The Episode –
Guests: Lazarus 🇺🇸 Dee MC 🇮🇳, Taizu 🇺🇸, Ali Kulture 🇺🇸
Our guests were deeply connected with the subject matter that we discussed.
Dee MC has been epic when it comes to speaking about social issues through her music, and she spoke her mind during our conversation as well. Combining her experiences with historical context, Dee MC brought attention to the parallels that we have with racism all around the world – no matter which country, there is always a percentage of the “privileged” class not giving a damn about the rest of the people. She also believes that “it starts at home”–having those conversations about race and equality starts in our own homes, with our own relatives and friends who might be perpetuating and teaching racial stereotypes to the younger generations.
Lazarus – who is a doctor & a rapper – used his experiences to paint the picture of possible solutions. Although he agrees that ‘protests’ are bad for health (because of the Coronavirus epidemic), he still believes that protests and having these difficult convos is the way forward to tackle systemic racism.
Taizu has been vocal about the atrocities faced by African Americans within his community, through his music, through his lyricism, and social media presence, he makes sure to use his skills and his platform to bring attention to the problems, and their solutions. He believes that we need to continue our exposure to these other communities, and have conversations to enable us to learn the challenges they face as well as how we can best help them and empower them within those communities.
Ali Kulture, who has been vocal about his personal experiences of racism both in the US & in Pakistan, added further context to the dilemmas that we face as well as potential solutions to improve them. He mentioned that, as Desi people we’re gonna need to stand up for our African American brothers & sisters by looking into our government institutions and by changing the system from within. Taizu echoed Ali Kulture’s thoughts by saying that we need people in government that look like us, think like us, and have life experiences like us, so that they can actually represent us in government. In that way, we can have more effective and long-lasting change in confronting the systemic racism that has been perpetuated and taking advantage of minorities for far too long.
In short, we need to stick together. As Lazarus reminded us in this segment, we need to see each other as humans, not just “someone from a different race”–but humans, individuals–that we shouldn’t paint everyone of a certain race with the same brush. We need to see people as individuals with their own self-worth. We need to support the communities that are struggling, support the businesses within these communities, and start a conversation with them. It’s time to stop acting like racism is “someone else’s problem to fix”. We each have a voice. Now is the time to use it!
Also – a quick shout out to our sponsored partners – APPLAUS. With Applaus, artists can finally earn money while performing for their fans on their livestreams – whether its Facebook Live, Instagram Live, YouTube, or anywhere else! With the COVID-19 pandemic destroying the live events industry, artists are finally able to innovate their performances to meet the needs of our current circumstances.
#UnityThroughHipHop