Alabama's Voting Rights Crisis + Hip Hop Activism [with Dr. Adia Winfrey]

[00:00:00] I was actually one of the original plaintiffs that filed the lawsuit in 2021, the Milligan v. Allen case that originally went to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court actually sided with the plaintiffs in 2023 and the people on the ground we fought and the state finally were forced by federal courts to create a new map. And so in 2024, we got a new map. Now there was a case that came out of Louisiana, kind of countering the mills.

[00:00:30] Milligan case and the Supreme Court sided with those plaintiffs. What that did was it brought the Milligan case back into the forefront to say, do we still really need this map? Well, the federal court in the state of Alabama said, absolutely, the state still needs this map because the map that the state legislature tried to pass is racist. Now, why that is significant is because two of the federal judges were appointed by Donald Trump.

[00:01:00] So these are not progressive judges at all. And they saw the map and said it's racist. They didn't even beat around the bush. They're like, it's crazy, but you guys are intentionally discriminating against black people simply because they're black. That's what they said. And so they kicked it back to the Supreme Court. But the Supreme Court said, you know, no, you guys can use the racist maps. And so that's where we are now.

[00:01:27] I am Brother Cornel West. And this is Hip Hop Can Save America.

[00:01:58] You can't save America newsletter anchored by a hand curated collection of recent, innovative and inspiring hip hop news and views, not stuff about the entertainment and gossip, but about the culture, specifically ways that Hip Hop can help uplift humanity and improve society. particularly lives, livelihoods, and communities that have been historically underrepresented, under-resourced, and underserved. Me, I'm the creator of all of these things and your host and guide through these channels. You can follow me on social, find out more about booking me to speak

[00:02:27] or consult, or more about my award-winning podcast production company at mannyfaces.com. For everything hip-hop can save America though, this podcast, links to the YouTube channel, the newsletter, our Discord server. Contact us to find out how you can help support this urgently needed quality hip-hop cultural programming and anything else you might need to know. Visit hiphopcansaveamerica.com. Once again, I'm Manny Faces, and I'm honored that you're here

[00:02:52] rocking with me on Hip-Hop Can Save America. Let's go. Peace, Dr. Adia Winfrey. Hello, my friend. How are you? I'm doing great. How are you today? I'm all right. All things considered, I guess. Yeah, all right. Still got to feel good, you know, the best you can. Yeah. Thank you for taking up some time with me. First of all, it's been a while since we talked, and it's always nice to be in conversation with you. For those who might not have seen a while back or

[00:03:20] remembered our conversation, if you could just briefly introduce yourself the way you like to be presented to the world. Yeah. Peace, everybody. I'm Dr. Adia Winfrey, better known as Dr. Adia, Hip-Hop Therapy Curriculum, and also Transform Alabama, which is a civic engagement organization

[00:03:47] that is rooted in hip-hop culture. And so while we do encourage people to vote, voting is for sure important. We recognize that civic engagement goes beyond election day. So we really use hip-hop as a tool of organizing and mobilizing. So as y'all have seen, it's a lot going on in Alabama. A little bit, a little bit, which is why I wanted to reach out, of course, and find out, first of all, you know, what is exactly kind of going on? You're right there on the ground. I

[00:04:13] know you can translate it, you know, in terms that, you know, lay folk who might not be always tuned into politics. Of course, there's a lot going on everywhere. But Alabama's got a really, unfortunately, I guess, special, but not that special thing that's happening there. Just can you explain to us the current state of the state in terms of particularly the impacts of the

[00:04:40] political machinations that your organization has been working so hard to fight against, the redistricting and the redrawing of maps and such. Can you explain that? Yeah, definitely. So basically, redistricting is a process that happens every 10 years. It always happens after the census that we do where they, you know, see where the population is, where everybody moves. And so the last redistricting that we went through as a nation was in 2021. Now, the state of

[00:05:07] Alabama created a map that didn't reflect the population of the state. And what I mean is, the state of Alabama is about 27 percent Black. So you would think that a congressional map would, you know, represent such when it comes to the way it's laid out, but it didn't do that. And so there was a lawsuit that was filed. I was actually one of the original plaintiffs that filed the lawsuit

[00:05:31] in 2021, the Milligan versus Allen case that originally went to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court actually sided with the plaintiffs in 2023. And the people on the ground, we fought and the state finally were forced by federal courts to create a new map. And so in 2024, we got a new map. Now, people are

[00:05:57] saying we had two majority Black districts, which is not the case. It was actually two opportunity districts. There were no, there was one majority Black district that we already had, but the second district was just an opportunity district that was about 47 percent Black. But because us organizers really worked to get the word out, really encouraged people to see the power they had, Black people got to elect the candidate of their choice in that second district. Well, that's what

[00:06:25] sent the nation in a tizzy. And we all know that the current president is doing all that he can to keep the balance of power in Congress. And so there was a case that came out of Louisiana kind of countering the Milligan case. And the Supreme Court sided with those plaintiffs. And so what that did was it brought the Milligan case back into the forefront to say, do we still really

[00:06:53] need this map? Well, the federal court in the state of Alabama said, absolutely, the state still needs this map because the map that the state legislature tried to pass is racist. Now, why that is significant is because two of the federal judges were appointed by Donald Trump. So these are not progressive judges at all. And they saw the map and said it's racist. I mean, they didn't even beat around the bush.

[00:07:20] They're like, you know, it's crazy, but you guys are intentionally discriminating against Black people simply because they're Black. That's what they said. And so they kicked it back to the Supreme Court. But the Supreme Court said, you know, no, you guys can use the racist maps. And so that's where we are now. The governor of Alabama created a whole new election that is going to take place in August

[00:07:48] using the new congressional maps, throwing out the election results from the election we just had last month to use these new maps. Now, the last thing I say before I close this is it's real interesting the way all these shenanigans have played out because so much attention and so much organizing

[00:08:13] happened on the ground once that Supreme case came out on April the 30th. There are people who probably would never vote in a primary that because they're like, oh, they're trying to take Black people's rights to vote. People turned out. We saw a turnout like we haven't seen in over 20 years. And so, you know, it's really blatantly shown how fragile our democracy is and who is really on the side of

[00:08:41] democracy. It's not about political party at all. It really boils down to do we believe what we say we are as a country and, you know, that voting really does matter and that we really do have a democracy. Yeah. Thank you for that breakdown. It's like, you know, people always say if the I've heard a million people say this, but if the voting rights, if it wasn't so important to vote, they wouldn't be trying to take it, take it away from folks. And so, so, so this is a Supreme Court

[00:09:11] ruling. There's no appeal to that. There's nothing that can be done directly to that particular case. Do you, do organizers look for, besides trying to vote, you know, vote their, vote a solution into office, someone who might, you know, I don't know, what are the next steps? What can you do once you've done this? Do you take on a new lawsuit? Do you, do you simply just have to live with the congressional results and just work with the maps and just work harder to, you know,

[00:09:37] get turnout and voter support? What are the, what are the moves? So right now, because we actually have a runoff election on Tuesday from the election that we had last month, it's very confusing with so many elections and people, you know, so, so really a big thing is using this opportunity to educate people on what the political process is, helping people to understand what the branches of government are, because the beauty of all of this is we've just in Alabama been able to

[00:10:07] see on a state and a national level, how the branches of government work together, how they should serve as a checks and balance. So we, or at least the organization that I co-founded, that's what we've really been focused on, really helping people to tap back into the, the election process or tap in for the first time through voting. That's the first step because it's right

[00:10:32] here, you know, right here amongst us right now. Yeah. And so maybe you don't, I'd imagine, not to cut you off, but I would imagine that all of this can be discouraging to the people who do want to participate. I voted already and I got to vote again. I got to take it. Right. So, but it's that, but not to not let that discouragement deter you. Absolutely. And that was actually the big thing in May because all of the things that came out with

[00:10:58] the governor creating a whole new election, this was all right before the election that was already on the schedule. So people were very confused. People were just like, so do I vote in August? We're like, no, you still got to vote in May because we have the governor's rights. Like none of that'll be on the ballot in August. And actually the August election, only 40 of the 67 counties even vote.

[00:11:20] So everybody doesn't vote in August. It's, it's just a big mess. Uh, I really could, there's a lot more I could say, but like I said, the beauty of all of this, the last like six weeks is that we have all of this on record because, uh, with the back and forth between the plaintiffs, between the state, people appealing, going back and forth to federal court, Supreme court over these last like four

[00:11:47] weeks have gotten everything on the record. When we could get federal judges appointed by Trump to say on the record, these maps were created against black people because they're black. That's what they say. I mean, it ain't getting plainer than that. You know what I mean? And, and, uh, exposing, you know, the, the, uh, the real, the real deal, the real, real talk. There you go. There you go. You want to say, you guess you were saying long-term the plan as well.

[00:12:15] It's a long time. So getting that on the record because our long-term, uh, plan in Alabama has always been about helping people understand the power of their vote. Alabama is, is known as a red state, but those of us that are in the state study numbers, study trends, we know that's absolutely not the case. It's red because people don't show up to vote and that's black and white people. That's people across the board do not, uh, in general show up to vote, but in particular areas

[00:12:44] of Alabama, uh, like where I stay, um, in East central Alabama, uh, I-20 like coming between Atlanta and Birmingham, that particular section of Alabama does not vote. We have the lowest turnout county for county. And so, um, just getting that population of people engaged and seeing what's going on, that makes a big difference, not just with turnout, but also with candidates on the ballot.

[00:13:09] So part of the discouragement of people voting is a lot of these seats go unopposed. There's a number, even in the area where I live, there are so many, uh, positions when you go to vote in November, there's nobody to vote for. There's one choice. And so people just kind of feel like, why do I even vote if there's nobody to vote for? So helping people to get prepared to potentially run for office,

[00:13:35] um, encouraging people to look at what positions are available in their area because all politics is local and that is where a lot of the change can happen. So using this as that opportunity to show people and start engaging people, um, with our organization, like I said, we use hip hop as a tool to mobilize people. So even, um, talking to artists, talking to people within the culture,

[00:14:00] helping them tap in and see what's going on and just creating these conversations now. Um, the other thing with the long-term is helping people understand like, yeah, you know, when we did what we did with the map and redistricting in Alabama, that kind of caused this wave, but this happens every 10 years. And, and even when the lawsuit was filed initially, this was like within months of the new map coming out. This has just gotten drug out, you know, over this whole time,

[00:14:27] but in four years, we're doing this cycle again, like we do every 10 years. So helping people to understand how we plug in now so we can kind of mitigate some of these things that we've seen. There's some other stuff that I would say, but you know, something we don't need on the record, but I would just say in the midst of the chaos that we see, um, a lot of us that actually organize on the ground in the community are seeing some bright spots and it's kind of like, you know,

[00:14:55] they did all of this to discourage us voting, but we think that they've moved the line so much that it may backfire. And so, uh, that's the other thing that long-term could actually happen. That's kind of the little, uh, underlying joke that everybody has. I get it. You know, it was like they were doing it, um, you know, uh, in the quiet and that, you know, what they did, what they did in the dark comes out in the light, right? All of that. And now you know it. And now, now people who weren't maybe even understanding what was happening have some kind of, because it's been in the news and you've been talking about it so much

[00:15:24] and organizations like yourselves out there letting it be known. Um, before I let you go and thank you for all that breakdown and thank you for all that work. It sounds like, um, you know, doesn't matter what side of the political aisle you are, you, you should want the most people available to vote. You want, you want all districts to be representative of their representation of who, you know, really is, is there and everyone have equal voice. Something that everyone should agree with. Um, and ironically only seems to, uh, negatively affect certain folk, uh, as opposed

[00:15:51] to others. So I see what's happening. I see your work just to let people know, because, you know, this is hip hop to save America. And I, and I, and I know that you've, you've talked about this before and you do this work. What are some of the things that you've been using? I know you mentioned a couple of them, you know, talking to artists to, to spread through their, their social media, just in general and maybe specific, but in general, um, how has, how have you seen hip hop be, um, sort of a motivating force to help bridge those two things, you know, the population and civic engagement in ways that, you know, other organizations they don't, they're not really

[00:16:20] tapped into or maybe should be. Yeah. So, um, one cool thing that we do, we love doing community gatherings, whether that's like a block party, you know, uh, barbecue, kickback, whatever it is that we come up with to draw people out of concert. And when we draw people out, we just have conversations with people just, you know, because everything is political, whatever you want to talk about, it goes back to some elected official doing something that impacted that. And so we use hip

[00:16:49] hop as a way to bring people together. The other thing, uh, how we're specifically using hip hop culture, oftentimes when you talk to people about voting or about wanting to get people to the polls and about hip hop, they always say young people, they'd be like, yeah, cause we need the kids to vote. And it's like, baby, hip hop is grown folks. You know what I'm saying? We just celebrated

[00:17:12] the 50th anniversary hip hop some years back, you know? So, so hip hop is very much intergenerational, but it's very much a grown folk culture. And, uh, and also when you look at who is not turning out to vote, it's gen X. Like, I mean, throughout the, throughout the decades now we older now, you know what I'm saying? We, we the ones in our forties and fifties and early sixties, but, um,

[00:17:41] we arguably are the ones that are not turning out to vote. And so by using hip hop culture, by using things that are familiar to us, you know, things that we grew up on to draw people out, we can have those real conversations because people are kind of ashamed to say they don't vote. You know what I'm saying? Like everybody will say like, of course I vote and they know they don't vote. But when we get in these, you know, intimate fun gatherings, we can have real conversations about

[00:18:06] why people don't vote. And some of the reasons are valid. Some of them are just whatever they are, but at least we could talk about it. So, um, those are ways that, that we're really using hip hop right now, uh, to get people engaged in, and we're having real good success from what we're seeing. And like I said, those initial numbers that we had in May, um, are, are very encouraging. That's dope. Well, listen, I know that that power exists, you know, that it exists, you know,

[00:18:33] cause we are, you know, hip hop minded folk, uh, but it's great to put it to use, uh, you know, use its power for good, right. As they say. Um, and so I thank you for that. Um, I know that every year you also involved in the, uh, the Jubilee, um, uh, you know, operations down there. I assume that's going to happen again. We'll, we'll talk again when we get closer to that, uh, and, and bring that, uh, to the people, but that's the yearly event. Um, and Selma, of course, you, you're intimately involved, you bring hip hop to the stage there as well. And so, um, I, I, uh, I love that, that you're taking all these opportunities to bring the culture into the mix

[00:19:03] in a way that's authentic and, uh, really does help, um, you know, the gen pop, not just the hip hop heads. Love it. Love it. Yeah, for sure. All right. Anything else? Um, tell people where they can reach you and the organization, particularly if you're in Alabama. Um, and then tell me, uh, why some, what someone who's not in Alabama can do to help y'all as well. Yeah. Yeah. So y'all can, uh, learn more about us at transformalabama.org. We're also on Instagram and TikTok and transformalabama

[00:19:29] and Facebook. Um, right now, just really, uh, if you could follow us on social media, that'll be great. Um, as we're starting to push out content, share that content. When, uh, we start releasing the information about Jubilee, which will be coming, uh, in the months to come, share that, tap into that. And, uh, we have some things that we're working on. And so if you're following us on social media,

[00:19:54] you will be able to see that if you are in Alabama, um, or if you want to travel to Alabama, we're doing events all year round. So we, uh, post the videos and, and, uh, info on social media and, and you can see it there. As I, as you know, I told you, I'm right down, I'm right down the block, um, on off the 20 and I haven't yet got there. My schedule has been, uh, you know, unfair to us, uh, but I'll get out there soon and, uh, and rock with you in person. Awesome. Sounds good. Well,

[00:20:22] thank you for having us. We appreciate it. You're welcome, my friend. Anytime you want to, you know, get something out to the folks that listen to me, you got me. For sure. All right. Thank you. Peace. Many faces. You sick for this one. Peace and love. Once again, thanks for listening to the hip hop can save America podcast, part of the world's most important and enlightening hip hop media ecosystem. Be sure to visit hip hop can save America.com to get links to catch us live Monday nights at 9 PM

[00:20:51] Eastern to subscribe to the hip hop can save America newsletter, to join us on our discord server and to reach out with any comments or suggestions you might have. Please take a moment to leave a review wherever you're listening to us and feel free to spread the word to everyone. You know, once again, I'm the creator writer host and editor many faces. You can find more about me, including more about my lectures and keynotes, my consulting work, and my award-winning podcast production company at many faces.com. I want to give eternal thanks to our consulting producer,

[00:21:19] summer McCoy. Be sure to check out her dope initiatives, the mixtape museum and hip hop hacks. We'll be back soon until then wishing peace and love to you and yours. I am brother Cornel West. And this is if I can save America. This is a many faces media production, many faces. You sick for this one.