Maya Gwynn
With KVCR Public Media, I'm Maya Gwynn with Black Perspectives IE, a show where we learn about the amazing things members of the Black community are doing in the Inland Empire. My guest today is Sky Allen, Executive Director for Inland Empire United. Thank you so much for being here, Sky.
Sky Allen
Thank you for having me.
Maya Gwynn
So, this is a very timely episode. Some residents believe that local elections don't significantly impact their daily lives. How does Inland Empire United make the connection between policy decisions, housing, public safety jobs and civic participation clear to people who may not think it affects their everyday life?
Sky Allen
It has a direct relationship with our everyday lives. Most of the issues that you just listed are things decided at the local level, actually by City Council or Board of Supervisors. Things like public safety, housing, economic development, those are not decisions made by a president or by a state legislature. They're made by your neighbors. And voting is a way to communicate which of those neighbors you trust to make those decisions and participating, going to those meetings and sharing your perspective on the things that they're talking about is what's going to have the most direct impact on your communities. Because the decisions that they make actually change the community that you're driving past every day, in ways that you know bigger quote, unquote seats don't have as much of a direct impact, because they're thinking about things that impact the whole state, for example, or the whole country. Whereas the at the local level, they're actually talking about your block.
Maya Gwynn
Definitely. And across the country, including the Inland Empire, we've seen events like this past weekend's the No Kings Protests alongside heightened enforcement actions like the ICE raids, which has been really emotional to see. How do these kind of protests and enforcement operations affect civic partnerships, especially for immigrant communities and marginalized groups, when these kinds of things are happening but, you may want to protest but, you have to fear for your own safety?
Sky Allen
I think that that impacts us in two ways. On the one hand, I think it's really fair that some people are just like, I can't do it, and they step away and they focus on themselves, the people in their home, and that's just as much as they can do, because you know they understand, they feel like everything's stacked against them. So, you have to- got to focus on what you can control. And then on the other end, there's people who are like, "No, I've had it. It was the last straw, I can't do this anymore," and are actually showing up more than they ever did before to say that this has gone completely too far. And I think that's the energy that we're seeing in No Kings, but it's also energy that we've been seeing, especially over the summer, given the increase of raids and direct attacks, that you know, nationally they talk a lot about LA, but we can drive back and forth all the time, and so can they, and we've been feeling it here, too. And that affects our whole community, right? And we're having our own neighbors be rounded up and taken out of the community. That's impacting our local businesses, it's impacting our schools, it's changing the air around us. But I also think that it's bringing us together as well, the folks that actually live here. Because people are saying like, "This is too far, this is unacceptable” and we're banding together and leaning into that energy will help us build what we need to, to get through it.
Maya Gwynn
Proposition 50 is being described as a way to allow California to redraw its congressional maps in response to partisan redistricting in other states. Why is this measure significant right now? And especially it's going to be very timely, because we vote on that November 4. On Tuesday, November 4.
Sky Allen
So if you have not voted yet, I would definitely encourage you to find your local polling place or vote center and fill it out or complete the ballot that you got at home and drop that off at a drop box or at a polling center to make sure that your vote is counted. You can actually track that with the 'Where's My Ballot?' link, and make sure that your voice is heard in this because it's so important. In a year where we saw a black community burned to the ground, and many of us have friends or family or loved ones that were impacted by that, and then for the federal government to turn around and strip resourcing for green energy and climate investments. That's intentional, right? In- five years ago, we experienced, you know, the pandemic and we're just barely starting to recover from that, and now people's health premiums are going up. That's a decision that was made in DC. There's so many examples as you're saying, we are a model across the country for our diversity, for the fact that so many people live here, and that gives us great communities and great music and great food and wonderful neighbors. And because of that, we were the first to be targeted by ICE and all these raids. So, this proposition gives us an opportunity to say, you actually don't get to just silence all of us to consolidate power for yourselves. You're supposed to work for us. And if you're trying to cheat so that you no longer have to listen to us, we're going to level the playing field and make sure that you can't just silence us and people that look like us across the country.
Maya Gwynn
Definitely. And how could Prop 50 directly impact voters in the Inland Empire, especially communities of color, working class neighborhoods that are often undercounted or split across different districts?
Sky Allen
I want to give credit to the people that drew the maps. What we are seeing and hearing happening in places like Texas and other parts of the country, they are intentionally dividing black and brown communities to intentionally silence them and dilute their power. And California actually, I mean, because we play by the book so much, they were actually able to redraw lines in ways that didn't split our communities up, but actually in a couple ways, they made sure to protect black majority districts in California and ensure that as they changed maps that they didn't further divide us. So, I would say in terms of keeping communities together, it is equally strong as the districts that we had before. They just some of them look a little bit different than they did before.
Maya Gwynn
Okay. Oh, that was a lot of really great information. And as you said, if you have not registered to vote, register to vote November 4.
Sky Allen
You can register the same day if you're not registered yet.
Maya Gwynn
Oh, thank you for sharing that, I didn’t even know that. We're gonna move on to our rapid fire portion. I know it's crazy transition, especially with like, the seriousness of what we're talking about. But, if your work had a theme song, what would it be?
Sky Allen
Ooh, the first song that comes to mind is Freedom. So, we'll go with Beyonce.
Maya Gwynn
Yeah, I'm a Hive member too. If you had to teach a master class or give a TED talk on a random skill you have besides, like, what you do for a living, what would it be?
Sky Allen
Probably something to do with music or music theory.
Maya Gwynn
Oh cool, I love that. And as someone born here, what's your favorite IE restaurant or landmark that reminds you of the Inland Empire?
Sky Allen
I'm really enjoying a lot of Thai food lately. So I've been doing like, hopping all across the different Thai spots in Riverside from Angel Thai and, yeah, that's one right next to our office that I really like going to.
Maya Gwynn
Good to know. My favorite Thai food place closed down so, I’ll try those. How can people keep up with Inland Empire United and support the work that you guys are doing?
Sky Allen
Yeah, we are on Instagram and we have a website. They're both IE United, so you can find us there. You can donate, you can sign up to our email listserv, and you can follow us and figure out if we're having any events, or learn about any of the organizations that we're connected to and get involved with those as well.
Maya Gwynn
Awesome. Thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate it.
Sky Allen
Thank you for having me.
Maya Gwynn
Sky Allen is Executive Director for Inland Empire United. Find this segment and others at kvcrnews.org/bpie. Support for this segment comes from the Black Equity Fund at IECF, advancing racial equity and supporting long term investments in black led organizations in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Join us again next week for Black Perspectives IE. For KVCR Public Media, I'm Maya Gwynn. Thank you.
