We're so caught up in how people express their art or how they choose to live their lives that we don't even see how our opposition, how those who don't mean us well, are pitting us against one another.
0:00:13
Announcer
Welcome to a movement of kindness and empathy. You're listening to Compassionate Las Vegas, the podcast embarking on a mission to unite our city under the banner of compassion. We're one among 400 cities around the globe standing together to build a more compassionate world. Now introducing the man leading the charge, your host, Will Rucker.
0:00:34
Will Rucker
Welcome to compassionate Las Vegas. The podcast. I'm your host, Will Rucker, and we've got a very amazing guest joining us for this episode. We're going to talk about democracy. We're going to talk about change. We're going to talk about what comes next and so much more. So with that, I'd like to welcome Quentin Savwoir to the podcast. Hello.
0:00:59
Quentin Savwoir
What's going on, little Rucker? How are you, my friend?
0:01:01
Will Rucker
You know, I am doing just fine. How about yourself?
0:01:05
Quentin Savwoir
I'm doing good. I really can't complain. It's hot and there's a lot of crazy in the world, but I've been on my meditation and journal writing, so I'm trying to keep it all together.
0:01:15
Will Rucker
I love it. Starting us off with two self care practices. That is fantastic.
0:01:19
Quentin Savwoir
Oh, yeah.
0:01:21
Will Rucker
So I'm so glad we were able to get together for this episode. It's been such a privilege getting to know you over the past few years and to work with you in various capacities. And so I just want to dive into really what it's like being you, and I want our audience get to know you a little bit better, but to set the bar to level set to get our foundation going. I want to hear from you how you define compassion.
0:01:51
Quentin Savwoir
That's a great question. What a great way to start. I think compassion starts with care. I screened from Miss Bailey Wick a lot about how there's a real void of care in our community, void of care in health care. Quite literally, you see black women dying at disproportionate rates. There's a devastating story out of Georgia recently where a doctor did something extremely vile to a child that was being born, and that child was not born alive. And I don't even want to repeat it because it's so anus, but I think that there's a void in care even in just speaking to one another. I am amazed that when I'm out and about, the teeth I have to pull just to get a random stranger to smile and wave back at me when I say, hi. Good afternoon.
0:02:35
Quentin Savwoir
I think that the world we've created, driven by technology, has driven us into our partisan corners or our niche corners, where we only talk to those that agree with us and aren't interested in challenging any ideas that we have about things that are happening outside of the things we're comfortable with. So when I think about compassion. I think about care. And I think we could do a much better job at caring for one another.
0:03:00
Will Rucker
There's so much in that because yet it really does come down to care. And I wonder if people have kind of exhausted their care. I mean, I won't pretend like we didn't just come through an entire pandemic that shut the world down, something that really no one on the planet had experienced before. And so I just wonder if maybe it's our care that has created some of those barriers.
0:03:28
Quentin Savwoir
Perhaps that is a good way to put it. I hadn't thought about it that way. I think about the void of care being tied to this American ideology that we can just pick ourselves up by our bootstraps and we are all independently made. That is a trope, and I call it American propaganda, quite honestly, because no one does anything alone. Even the business has created for a singular individual is made possible by the amenities that they've enjoyed to get that far. Right? So it is these collective things that we've done as human society in this country that have created opportunities for businesses to start and thrive.
0:04:11
Quentin Savwoir
So I wonder how much of the care piece we've just taken it on to be, well, I don't need anyone to care about me. I can do it. But that's really not true. This grand experiment that we have in this country is only made possible through caring for one another and being compassionate for one another and available for one another.
0:04:31
Will Rucker
Yeah, I absolutely agree. And I think it's a bit delusional to think that anyone could really survive on their own. I do an exercise in some of my coaching masterminds where I say, okay, imagine you're the only person on the planet now.
0:04:48
Quentin Savwoir
What?
0:04:48
Will Rucker
And just really thought experiment, because when people really stop to think about it's, like, oh, my gosh, no, we meet each other and I want to be with other people. I'm an introvert by nature, and even I am like, oh, it's time to.
0:05:02
Quentin Savwoir
Get around some people. Yeah, exactly. No, you got to be careful. Delusion is running high. So between that delusion and the audacity, it is pretty wild. I think that social media has played a big factor in this idea of, well, I can just do it myself. Because you have this world online where you interact with people, but you don't really interact with people. And I think about when I was a child and my dad being a labor leader, my dad organized people through having conversations with them.
0:05:30
Quentin Savwoir
And sometimes they were hard conversations, sometimes they were arguments, sometimes they cussed each other out. But they came back to it. Right. They didn't walk away from the idea or the challenging conversation at hand. They just agreed to disagree and would move forward. Today you have a disagreement with somebody, and they're ready to pull up on you with a gun. And it's just like, that's not the way civilized people that's not the way civilized people live.
0:05:53
Quentin Savwoir
So how do we overcome this idea that it's just us and we only need us, we need each other? It takes a village. That's an African proverb. But it actually is quite applicable to the dire straits that we find our country in today.
0:06:07
Will Rucker
Yeah. And you remind me, even with social media, when we get into an argument or a disagreement or we see something we don't like, the first answer is, well, then block me. If you don't like what I'm posting, block me. And these barriers to authentic dialogue, I grow in conversation with folks I disagree with, and that's what really strengthens my core beliefs and my values, is by examining those that don't hold. So with that, you hold a number of roles, and you are such an instrumental piece of the next generation of our communities.
0:06:46
Will Rucker
So just high level, what are the 1511 jobs you got?
0:06:52
Quentin Savwoir
Oh, goodness. My four jobs that are all free. How do I end up with four free job? I messed that up bad. It's a privilege to be the president of the Las Vegas NAACP. I made a Facebook post. I remember being introduced to the NAACP from my grandmother. She took me to a national conference as a kid, and she still speaks very highly of the association and beings with pride in the legacy of the progress that the organization association is, how it's referred, has protected and preserved for 114 years.
0:07:26
Quentin Savwoir
And I remember being so bored out of my mind in those breakout sessions all those years ago to now be the leader of a branch, in charge of some things at a very pivotal time in our country's history. It is very much full circle moment. I never thought that that would be the way, but here we are, and it's very exciting. The NAACP is thriving, and it is alive and well. The worries I have about the association are worries that we see in our ecosystem largely with the passing of the torch to a new generation of leaders.
0:07:59
Quentin Savwoir
And we have a lot of leaders that are still putting in a lot of incredible work. I think about Dr. Hazel Dukes, who's state conference president in New York, but Ms. Hazel is also 91 years old. So I start to think about, well, where is the mentorship? Where is the teaching of and I'm not saying that this doesn't exist. Right. I'm sure that she have mentored countless people in her years of advocacy and service to the world, but I just wonder what the hold up is in making sure that the next generation of readers has what it takes to assume the leadership roles, because the things that we've been doing haven't changed the issues that we're having.
0:08:37
Quentin Savwoir
We're very much still living in a world that our foremothers and forefathers fought back against in the was talking to my dad, and I wasn't around at this time. But my dad speaks about how during the advances we made in civil rights, we found that in the 70s there was a backlash to that. And he refers to this moment in time to that moment in time where we see the rollback of some of our civil rights and civil liberties.
0:09:06
Quentin Savwoir
So for me, it's really an honor to be president at this time because it feels like a Janet Jackson song. Made for now, right? Like, Janet's my girl. So I listen to Made for now. It keeps me fueled up. So that's my big community job. I'm also vice president of my fraternity chapter theta Pi lambda of Alpha Alpha Paternity Incorporated. Alpha has changed my life. I'm actually new in the fraternity. I'm less than two years in.
0:09:29
Quentin Savwoir
And Alpha has opened my brain up and lifted my confidence to understand that I'm limitless in this world. And you need that type of understanding of confidence in yourself if you're going to read a civil rights organization like the NAACP. I also work at Run for something. That's my day job. That's what pays the bills. I help recruit young people to run for office across all 50 states. My project specifically is about finding pro democracy election administrators.
0:09:55
Quentin Savwoir
Those are the folks that are in charge of running elections and making sure that our systems maintain and are integral as we select those that should lead our communities. So those are like my three big jobs. What else do I also do? I'm also involved with CEIC. I'm the vice president of CEIC as cannabis equity inclusion community. It's a grassroots policy group that's working to change the political and policy landscape of cannabis laws in the state of Nevada.
0:10:21
Quentin Savwoir
20 years ago, you had a little bit of weed on you. They going to kick in your door and take your daddy to jail for 30 years. But now we have figured out how to make it a multibillion dollar industry and it's okay. So our organization's position is that we want the business opportunities to be just as equitable and available to the people in the communities that were destroyed because of this plant 20 years ago. Today.
0:10:45
Quentin Savwoir
What else do I do? Those are the biggest things I think will it's all around. Community servant. I like getting my hands dirty.
0:10:55
Will Rucker
That is enough, my friend. That is more than no.
0:10:58
Quentin Savwoir
For real.
0:11:00
Will Rucker
I'm going to circle all the way back to that first role you mentioned and just share why you say NAACP instead of NAACP.
0:11:11
Quentin Savwoir
I say NAACP because when I say NAACP or when I've heard other people say NAACP, our younger people don't hear the AA, they hear W or there have been some adult men, some of my peers that hear NCAA. And I'm like, this is no, we got it wrong. IW wells is not pleased. IW, Wells, would be one of the founders of the NAACP. So I say NAACP so that people understand exactly what the acronym excuse me, what the acronym is. But also, fun fact, and this is kind of new, the association is actually rebranding itself and getting away from the full use of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and just going by the letters NAACP.
0:11:58
Quentin Savwoir
And apparently this is a vestige and this has been the thing for a couple of years now, but the straw that broke the camel's back was a couple of weeks ago on the floor of the House of Representatives. One of the Republican Congressmen from Georgia, in his remarks referred to colored people. And the whole Democratic side was like in an uproar and they wanted it struck from the record and so on and so on. But then his retort was, well, you have a whole organization that refers to colored people.
0:12:26
Quentin Savwoir
Of course we know that we can say it. You can't say it. But that wasn't a suitable answer. So the National Association, which this was already underway before this happened, the National Association is rebranding to just be NAACP.
0:12:41
Will Rucker
So I did not know that latter piece. But yeah, I think that people understand what it means, where it stems from, and of course, where I really want to get to where it's going. So with your multitude of endeavors, the consistent thing that I do here really is community. And so equity seems to be.
0:13:09
Quentin Savwoir
A.
0:13:09
Will Rucker
Cornerstone perhaps of everything that you do, whether it's cannabis or I'm going to say it colored people right out of where we're going with it. That equity piece seems to be clear for you as an individual. That is what I call a multi minority. I'm sure you've experienced drama from every side, whether it's in your leadership or just in being a part of a community. Tell me a little bit about how you deal with maintaining your ardent commitment to change and drama.
0:13:52
Quentin Savwoir
That's a great question, Will. Now, I think what I said so I'm being like real vulnerable here. What I've realized in these last couple of weeks is my steadfastness to community is really anchored in selfishness. It's like an addiction for me. I grew up. My dad was married, so my dad wasn't in the house, so I was the man of the house with my mom and my sisters. So I was always picking up slack. I was always tying down the loose ends.
0:14:26
Quentin Savwoir
It's ingrained in me to need to always be doing something. So as an adult with no kids and a real heart for community and making sure that the experiences that I had as a young person aren't matriculated down to new generations, I just show up, I say out of the drama because I know that the drama is just there to distract me. It's intended to get me to be frustrated with being of service to my people because this is a free job this job pays in gray hair, which, if I get close enough, you could probably see it.
0:15:00
Quentin Savwoir
It pays in sleepless nights and weight gain. It does not pay. It occasionally pays in. My treasurer said a couple of weeks ago, she said, I'm just so proud to be a part of this with you all. Sometimes I get those kind of checks, and those checks matter. Like, that really feels good. I had another branch member tell me recently, I'm really glad to be on Y'all's team. That's a real vouch, like someone vouching for you in that way and believing in your vision, the things you're trying to do, that goes a real long way. But the haters, they're going to be there, and I know that, and I make sure not to give it too much energy, because when you're doing work out of the goodness of your heart, it's easy to pack up and walk away.
0:15:41
Quentin Savwoir
So I don't get caught up in the distractions, because the distractions are intended to make me feel hopeless in my people and what's possible, and I'm not going to buy that. I'm not going to believe that. I know from which I come. I know that the challenges that have come before are the same challenges today, but we have a blueprint for how to get over them further. I have way more resources than our foremothers and forefathers had. So there is no reason that I'm not steadfast and successful.
0:16:08
Quentin Savwoir
And the only way that I'm not successful is if I choose not to be. Choosing not to be means I'm engaged in the foolery, or I'm engaged with you feeling some type of way about me having a husband, right? Or I'm engaged in you feeling some type of way about me wanting to showcase and bring to the forefront other types of black folks that exist in our community. I'll tell you a funny story. I was planning our Juneteenth Jubilee Block party, and I said, you know what? I would like to see some female impersonators drag queen. I would like to see a drag queen perform at the Jubilee Block Party. There is nothing more free than a drag queen performing some freedom song. Right?
0:16:48
Quentin Savwoir
Will, you would have thought I said I was going to have, I don't know, the KKK there. Well, what is your agenda? What I'm trying to get my community to understand is that no one is coming to save us. And the longer we bicker and fight amongst one another, the longer it's going to take for us to really rally up and fight back against the extremism that's trying to carry us back to pre Jim Crow days.
0:17:12
Quentin Savwoir
We're so caught up in how people express their art or how they choose to live their lives that we don't even see how our opposition, how those who don't mean us well, are pitting us against one another. So as a proudly black gay man, I'm going to be unapologetic in making the audience that this NACP serves wider, because I know it's going to take an army. My campaign slogan was, it's going to take all of us, and I meant that quite literally. It's going to take all of us to save democracy, to get rent that's affordable, to make sure care is within reach and quality, to make sure that black women aren't dying in childbirth. That's not one person's job.
0:17:53
Quentin Savwoir
That's all of our jobs. But we are more preoccupied with being upset that baby girl dresses as a drag queen, as an artistic expression, and makes a little coin on the weekend. That's just crazy. You're more concerned about that than someone trying to take your voting rights where that makes sense at.
0:18:12
Will Rucker
When we come back, I want to dive into that a bit more deeply and talk about the subject of democracy, because there is an idea that there's a radical left and a radical right and they're somehow equivalent. And so I want to get your perspective after this.
0:18:36
Announcer
Camp Anytown has taught me that knowledge is power, and if I utilize my voice, I can make a difference in the world no matter how big or small.
0:18:43
Quentin Savwoir
I learned that as long as we stand together, we can accomplish so much more. What Camp Anytown has taught me is that I am not crazy to think I can change the world. I'm crazy if I think I can do it alone.
0:18:54
Announcer
Camp Anytown has taught me that just because I'm different does not mean I don't belong.
0:18:59
Quentin Savwoir
I learned at Camp Anytown to be more compassionate because you never know what somebody else is going through.
0:19:06
Announcer
Camp Anytown is a no cost youth leadership camp that trains high school students in diversity, community, and inclusivity. When you choose the Golden Rule license plate, you play a part in a local camp that helps shape a better tomorrow. Learn [email protected].
0:19:25
Will Rucker
This is compassionate. Las Vegas. The podcast. I'm Will Rucker, and here today is president of the Las Vegas branch of the NAACP.
0:19:41
Quentin Savwoir
Thank you, Will. That was and And I'm going to get that T shirt. Yeah.
0:19:45
Will Rucker
There we go. So before the break, we were talking about democracy, and I love that you had the expression of drag arc in your Juneteenth Jubilee celebration. Like, that is fantastic. I'm a ball kid, so drag has been a part of my life since I had my adult life, and I do miss it. I never have been a drag performer, but I was a Face Kid. I walked across the nation, hey, look.
0:20:14
Quentin Savwoir
At the.
0:20:17
Will Rucker
I was what you call oh, gosh, a star. That was the title. I was trying to become an icon. Never stayed in it long enough to do that. But what I have found, because I'm also a pastor, I've been a pastor for over 20 years and traveled the globe preaching Christianity. And sometimes that's not always congruent with how people view my orientation. So I just find it really fascinating that you brought that element into the NAACP.
0:20:45
Will Rucker
And how I want to tie this to democracy is I had a conversation with someone who is a nonpartisan, and they were saying, well, you know what? I'm not a Democrat. I'm not a Republican. I'm against the far left and the far right. And I asked them, like, well, how do you define the far left? Because I don't really see them as equivalent entities. Unfortunately, the explanation he gave me was basically pronouns and sexuality. Well, the far left wants to be able to have fluid gender identities. And I'm like, okay, even if that's the case, is that really the same as the far right teaching that slavery was beneficial for the enslaved? These were different battles to me.
0:21:31
Will Rucker
So I want to hear your perspective on all of that.
0:21:35
Quentin Savwoir
Listen, slavery was not a workforce development program. When I heard that, I was like, man, we really are living in the last days. Your grandparents say, no, we in our last days. I was like, yes, this is it. I wrestle with that myself. Honestly, I don't see the things that I talk about as being radical left. When I talk about the importance of there being pro worker policies that center families that make sure that moms don't have to work three jobs to pay rent, when I talk about that being in par with us having an economically friendly landscape for businesses to come to Nevada and build, those things go hand in hand to me. Those things should not be competing interests, right?
0:22:21
Quentin Savwoir
The idea that rent should be affordable, everyone needs housing. Everyone wants to raise their kids in housing. Right? Like, there's just some basic fundamental human needs that we can all agree we would want, but yet and still we have made these things commodities and out of reach for certain people. So the idea of rent being attainable and people being able to be safe in a home, I don't characterize that as radical.
0:22:48
Quentin Savwoir
And the fact that we've gotten to a place in our politics, in our public discourse, where it's described that way, lets you know how urgent it is that you get involved in the fight set a day. What the right is doing is rewriting history and banning books and any other number of things that if you just look a couple of years back through history at other countries, you see where this road leads. So when folks try to position what the right is doing and compare that to Black Lives Matter, those two things are not the same. You are not comparing the same thing.
0:23:23
Quentin Savwoir
The Black Lives Matter movement is a movement that's outlining people who want to see black people have whole, full, thriving lives and not be concerned with the worry of dying in a routine traffic stop or dying in their home because an officer knocks on the wrong door or any other number of anecdotes that we've heard of black people being killed at the hands of law enforcement or random white people who feel threatened by the presence of black life.
0:23:54
Quentin Savwoir
So when we talk about defending black people from being unnecessarily killed, that's not the same as what the extreme right is doing in trying to make sure that your vote doesn't count or in trying to make sure that you don't have right when you go to the hospital. It's so crazy to me how the right had been able to weave this web of we are pro Christian, pro family, but small government, but we're going to tell you what to do with your body.
0:24:24
Quentin Savwoir
Like you all don't hear how crazy this is, but they have a whole army of folks that buy this and believe this. And what I've deduced, and I think that it's a good hypothesis, is that they see that the ethnic landscape of America is changing. And you can google search what will the average person in America look like in twelve? 845? And it will be a person of color. Right. So all these aggressive efforts to restrict women's bodies I think is twofold. One, the highest number of abortions come from Caucasian women.
0:24:59
Quentin Savwoir
Like that's a fact. I'm not making that up. You can research that. So if you are saying certain women can't, or women can't get abortions, or certain women can't get abortions, we know that wealthy people will find a way to get abortions in states where it's permissible. So what happens with this is you create a permanent underclass of folks that are already struggling. Black women don't earn what their white male counterparts earn or what their white female counterparts earn.
0:25:23
Quentin Savwoir
But the black woman in Alabama who cannot get an abortion and cannot afford to travel to Alabama or the nearest state adjacent to her to get an abortion is forced to have that child. That's what I'm talking about when I say thus creating this permanent underclass people in this country. So you can't compare apples and oranges with me. Now. Is there some legitimacy around some of the things that come up when they call the extreme left the extreme left? Yeah. There are some things I think that go too far.
0:25:52
Quentin Savwoir
I don't know what examples of that would be because I don't listen to those arguments either. I really try to make sure that my messaging and the things that I'm learning and advocating for are for the betterment for people at large and as a whole. When we talk about rent being affordable, that's something that everyone should be able to understand. When we talk about care being affordable, how in the world are we going to have a number one economy if we don't have anywhere for people to take their kids?
0:26:17
Quentin Savwoir
Right. We all feel this extreme heat. We just saw what's happened in Hawaii just last night. Yesterday we saw what extreme temperature I'm sorry, what? Extreme weather in New York earlier this year yielded with the wildfires from New York. It colored the whole skyline orange. So we have very serious things that the extreme left is concerned about, but we see the consequences of ignoring those things manifesting in real time, so they're not the same to me, quite honestly. The right is preoccupied with restricting rights and harnessing power because they see that they are losing their grip on America.
0:26:54
Quentin Savwoir
We are protecting the rights that we have earned and expanding them to include more people so that we can really have an America that lives up to her word.
0:27:05
Will Rucker
One of the things I hear often is, well, we elected Barack Obama and nothing. So, you know, of course, he was the hope and change guy, right? I validate everyone's feelings. I think that you're allowed to feel how you feel and your feelings are real, and we also need to look at what's factual, like, what actually occurred. And we did shift quite a bit. I think we made a number of shifts. But for the person that feels like their vote doesn't matter, their voice doesn't matter, that things don't change, and even kind of to an earlier point, how we're facing similar struggles to what we faced in the how do you stay encouraged?
0:27:51
Will Rucker
What would you tell that person that doesn't want to get involved because they think it doesn't matter?
0:27:57
Quentin Savwoir
Well, the first thing I would say is what I always say, if it didn't matter, they wouldn't be trying so hard to take it from you. The saying encouraged part is hard. I'm not going to lie. It's very hard. My whole life is politics. My whole life is community. It's not a whole lot that I do outside of those spaces. And it's hard for me to sit down and watch, like, a regular movie without me thinking about, like, oh, this happens in real life. I need to develop a plan to do that. My husband told me, he was like, it's just a movie. You could chill out. I was like, you're right.
0:28:26
Quentin Savwoir
But what makes me stay encouraged is when I pause enough to remember the people who've done this before me. One of my little hangout spots. And I haven't been in a while because it's hot in Las Vegas, but I like to just pop up at Legacy Park on the West Side and I just walk around and I just look at all the people who have contributed in some meaningful way to this community in learning about the things that they did.
0:28:48
Quentin Savwoir
Think about Dr. Ruby Duncan. I think about brother James McMillan, who's a former NAACP president. I think about Ms. Brenda Williams and her husband James Williams, who were county who was county Commissioner. The countless people mother tolan just the things that they had to endure and go through in order to advance and protect opportunities so that I can sit here and. Be talking to you today so that our kids, our community kids, can go to a school, right?
0:29:18
Quentin Savwoir
So I stay encouraged, thinking about the things that they had to endure, knowing that I'm not dealing with the exact same challenges that they were dealing with. I just got back from conference season. I went to my fraternity conference and then I went to the NAACP conference. Now, Alpha started before NAACP, so there's a shared history there in many respects. But thinking about the historical figures that have come through those organizations and been affiliated with both at one point or another and the things that they won and got through is what keeps me going.
0:29:51
Quentin Savwoir
It was a decision that was made to be of service and to persevere and to make sure that we were on the right side of history in protecting and advancing civil rights. I can't help but think I can be successful because I have way more tools. I've got this little computer I walk around with every day. I have a car. I have a job that pays me to eat like I eat good. Let's be very clear. I don't have to worry about being on the street.
0:30:20
Quentin Savwoir
I just have such a privileged life that my foremothers and forefathers didn't have, and yet and still they were able to advocate and pass federal policy that would protect my voting rights, protect federal policy that would desegregate schools. So there's nothing in me that says I can't do it. It's just a matter of finding the right people to come along and do it with me. So I'm going to use this as a plug to go to NACP Las Vegas.org,
0:30:46
Quentin Savwoir
in case you are looking for an organizing home, because that's one of the things one of the elders at the National NAACP conference told me. I said, well, you know, it's hard to get people to do stuff. It's hard to get people to get buy in because we just all in our corners. And the gentleman said to me, he said, Quinn, that's not a unique challenge, that's an ongoing challenge. He said, but what you do is you keep going anyway.
0:31:05
Quentin Savwoir
People respond to consistency and eventually the right people just come along. And that hit me like, damn, you're right. Great. So I got back to Las Vegas and I'm like, we're doing this. We're going to do this, we're going to do this. I know somebody that might want to do this. And now I'm just feeling like fired up, ready to go. And that's not to say that I don't have some days that I'm like, because yesterday was one of those days.
0:31:28
Quentin Savwoir
But I know that we will win the way that we have won in the past.
0:31:33
Will Rucker
You just tap on so many different things in that statement. Community is important to me, and one of the things that I do is I help organizations create cultures that are thriving and to improve morale and to gain buy in. And I mean, this is stuff I've studied for years and I still struggle. I'm still like, is this really the right path? So I'm asking two questions kind of in one. One is our nation is built on the collective voice. So we vote and we move forward based on consensus.
0:32:09
Will Rucker
That's hard. It's much easier to just tell folks what they're going to do. And I think that all of us are always smarter than any one of us. So there's value in the second part of this one question is with an organization as multifaceted as the NAACP, so you've got health, you've got policy, you've got youth, you've got money. I mean, you've got all of these different components. How do you allow for the individuality to express while still staying focused on that collective mission and not leaving anyone out or excluding anyone.
0:32:49
Quentin Savwoir
Powerful? Can you ask the first part of that question again? Yeah.
0:32:53
Will Rucker
With the idea of democracy just gaining consensus, gaining consensus difficult. How do you do that part of it?
0:33:03
Quentin Savwoir
Well, I think the first thing is to start with asking people what their experiences are. One of the things that we've taken to do at our branch meetings, I think we did it two months in a row, is we are directly asking our community members, what issues are you seeing? There's a lot of folks that they become president of something or they become the leader of something. And that just means I know everything. I don't know everything.
0:33:27
Quentin Savwoir
I know what I read and I know what I know, but I'm not in every single pocket of this valley. So I think the first thing you have to do is be willing to listen. So we are directly soliciting input from our community members about the problems that they see in their communities and in having discussions about what those problems are. We try to see if that fits within a committee. If it doesn't fit within a committee, we make a committee for it to fit in because we don't want anyone's problems to go ignored. Especially if it's something that can be fixed with just a little bit of people power.
0:34:00
Quentin Savwoir
Right. I am a firm believer that we can solve a lot of our problems outside of the binary of politics, if we were just talk to each other and create buy in amongst one another. I think another important part of gaining buy in is having a deep relationship with people. I got a little controversy when I took office because I took our branch meetings back to in person. I'm not a COVID denier. I recognize that the pandemic in large part we are still dealing with that. Right. Like COVID cases have ticked up in some areas recently.
0:34:29
Quentin Savwoir
But I know the power of buying in when you are in person amongst folks. We did COVID meetings as an NACP branch for the better part of two years. And as a member, I felt like I was seeing new people. Every single virtual zoom meeting in person. I know who I'm expecting to see in person, and they're expecting to see those other people that they know are going to be there month over month, too. And while that may not mean that we are changing the world tomorrow, we're creating assignments for one another to create something that could be world changing in six months, a year, two years, my next term, maybe. Right.
0:35:09
Quentin Savwoir
A large part of buying in is having a deeper connection with someone outside of just the transactional. Hey, how you doing? Oh, I'm good, too. All right, see you next time. We have to care. We have to genuinely care without there being any incentive for us on the other side, aside from the incentive that our community is better off with us being in relationship with one another. Does that make sense?
0:35:33
Will Rucker
Absolutely, yeah. I want to just dive deeper into that and just frame it around the importance of democracy, because what you're well, if we have a need, we fill it. We add people to that. Democracy doesn't exist without the voice of people. How do you navigate the seven or 8 billion different perspectives on the planet for common cause? And of course, you're dealing with a much smaller scale in Las Vegas. But harnessing perspective, the ancient wisdom of our elders with the innovation and eagerness of the youth, bringing those together for pace that is manageable and that everyone can go along with it, how do.
0:36:18
Quentin Savwoir
You put all together? I think because I'm like, this is a hypothesis. I'm trying, and I'm doing this in all my spaces where I'm really trying hard to make democracy tangible for people. We talk about democracy in these very esoteric ways. And I can remember being a young man thinking that the world as it was is how it would be. And my whole pivot towards democracy came as a result of what I call a terrorist attack on January 6, 2021. 2021? Yes.
0:36:51
Quentin Savwoir
When we saw extremists attack our capitol in the name of trying to overturn the election results from the people who said, hey, we want to try something different. Donald Trump, we good on you. Right. That's when I was like, oh, well, if we don't have a country, affordable childcare won't matter so much. Like affordable housing won't matter. We'll literally be starting from scratch. Okay, well, my people can't start from scratch right now because we are already at such a deficit.
0:37:17
Quentin Savwoir
So I think the best way to try to bring people and create buy in on tactics and strategies to protect democracy is to talk about the ways that democracy shows up in your everyday life. What are the amenities that you enjoy that are a vestige of democracy? Our school district here in Clark County is not the best. We regularly rank close to the bottom on a lot of things, but the mere fact that we have a public school system is a byproduct of democracy.
0:37:44
Quentin Savwoir
And if we see that that school system is not working, the good thing about democracy is you are invited to be engaged and change the rules, change the process of how that thing is run, change a great deal of what is so that it can be better and better serve the community at large. I think so many of us just think that this thing will just be and that is probably one of our things around American exceptionalism, is that we just think it's going to be okay. We're going to be bees knees forever.
0:38:13
Quentin Savwoir
That's not the case. We could very easily be a third world country that we would otherwise invade and try to protect if we saw the things happening there that we have happen right here in our very own backyard. So if we can make democracy tangible for people, especially young people, especially people from different ethnic backgrounds, then I just happen to think that we can change who's in charge and create a system of governance that's more inclusive of people, that's more mindful of folks. In my job at Run For Something, we go out of our way to try to get out of the traditional party system for a long time. We would say, oh, I'm going to call the Clark County Chair and see who they want to recommend for state senate and then we are going to help them run for office.
0:38:57
Quentin Savwoir
No, what we're doing now is we are riding buses, we are going to nail salons, we are going to laundromat. We are talking to people about, hey, have you thought about running for office? Well, I don't think I'm qualified. Here's the thing. We had a whole president who committed like a whole lot of crimes while he was president. So you actually are qualified. So we should try this thing. So getting people to understand like that, it's not this A plus AP science experiment that you have to pass.
0:39:25
Quentin Savwoir
You just have to care. Care is enough to run for office. And I promise you there's enough me and enough wills to help you figure out how to get over the finish line. And if you don't get over the finish line, you'll at least go down with a strong fight and you'll have a whole army of people behind you ready to do the thing that you're interested in doing. So I just happen to think that if we make the system a little bit less political in nature and make it more plain for people to understand like, hey, you want this bus to run at a different time of day, that's what the County Commissioner does. They have authority over the regional transit center. You should consider running for county Commission.
0:40:06
Quentin Savwoir
Making it accessible for people in ways that make sense to their brain, I think is how we save democracy. It's not about Joe Biden in 2024, folks. It's going to be about if we have a democracy and if we have a voice and the people that lead this country.
0:40:22
Will Rucker
Well, I could go on and on with you for hours that we didn't even get to. But before we close out, I want to know what you're listening to. What's on your playlist? I know Janet Jackson got Janet Jackson made for now.
0:40:37
Quentin Savwoir
What else you know, Janet? That's a great question. I am a kid. I love my safe place. I've been listening to a lot of Nita Baker lately because I bought tickets to go see that show in October. New stuff. I've been listening to Janelle Monet. I'm a big John Batiste fan. I have been listening to a lot of John Coltrane during my workday because it helps me focus and I can't say this person's name right.
0:41:08
Quentin Savwoir
Katranda. K-A-Y-T-R-A-N-D-A.
0:41:15
Will Rucker
You're asking the wrong person. I have no idea.
0:41:18
Quentin Savwoir
Well, this person is a Canadian artist and they have a good discography. I really enjoy their music and of course, all things B, like, I've been enjoying the Renaissance Proxy, all my friends that have gone because I haven't made it to the show. That's funny, but it's all good.
0:41:36
Will Rucker
And then what are you doing to take care of you? I know you mentioned journaling and meditation.
0:41:41
Quentin Savwoir
Earlier, but yeah, that's all you're doing to take care of that's really it and it's not really healthy. I had to do better with the taking care of me part. And honestly, I think remember earlier I was talking about how my service is honestly kind of a selfish thing because I think that my service to my people superseded my service to me and I think I'm doing it on purpose and not take care of me. And that's something that I'm really working on because that's not good.
0:42:18
Quentin Savwoir
That's not good. I make myself feel good being of service to someone else while not taking care of my own vessel. So it just dawned on me recently, like, oh, you're keeping yourself busy on purpose because you should be going to the gym or you should be grocery shopping or you should be at that therapy appointment so that you can work through your own right. So I'm not doing the best job at the self care, but the best part about me is when I realize something about myself, I whip into shape to fix it and intention equals result in my world. So as soon as I get intentional about it, then there will be a change up. So I'm looking forward to that and encouraging others to be on the self care journey, like, consistently, it's not a destination, it's literally a journey. You have to be cognizant, you have to be intentional, you have to explore new things. I tried something a couple of weeks ago that I was like, wow. I painted it. I went to a community event and I just sat there and painted.
0:43:12
Quentin Savwoir
And at the end of 40 minutes, without touching my phone, I thought I was crazy. And I was like, actually, this was really good for me because it required me to slow down. It required my brain to just be at peace for a moment and just color a little canvas that was right in front of me. And it was actually the nicest thing I've done for myself that week.
0:43:30
Will Rucker
I love it. So trying something new? Yeah, that's good.
0:43:34
Quentin Savwoir
Yeah.
0:43:34
Will Rucker
I'm going to stay on you about this self care. I always encourage healers and helpers to include themselves in their circle of care. That's so critical.
0:43:43
Quentin Savwoir
Thank you.
0:43:44
Will Rucker
All right, so what's going on with the NAACP? I know you all have some events coming up, so share happening.
0:43:51
Quentin Savwoir
Yes, we do. We have a lot of good stuff coming up. Our annual Freedom Fund gala is coming up that we are celebrating our 95th year. The Freedom Fund Gala will be on Saturday, October 21. It will be at the Paris Hotel Resort and Casino. I'm very excited. Our theme this year is remembering, Reclaiming and Reimagining r n AACP. I am really trying to create this universal buy in into our branch as we usher in our 100th year.
0:44:22
Quentin Savwoir
God willing, I'll be president as we usher in this 100th year. And I want to spend these years walking into that centennial, really building the type of community buy in that will fortify the programming within this branch and really solidify our political and civil rights power as an organization in this state. The NACP is the oldest, biggest and baddest civil rights group, and we have a long way to go to restore how our community should see us and to restore the credibility that we should have with our community. So I'm up for the challenge, and I'm willing to do it. So I hope that you can join us at the Freedom Fund Gala.
0:44:59
Quentin Savwoir
Tickets are $250. It is the fundraiser funds generated support the branch scholarship Fund, where we provide scholarships to high school seniors and current college students that are branch members. And what else do we have coming up, our next general member meeting, August 19, 1230. I always say if you can't make a membership meeting, you just have to remember three things always 1230, always the third Saturday, always Pearson Center.
0:45:26
Quentin Savwoir
That's really it. I can't wait to see you all, and I welcome you to join us. Our website is NAACP las Vegas.org.
0:45:33
Will Rucker
Awesome. Well, Quentin, thank you so much for joining the podcast and thank you for the work that you're doing. I'm a member of the NAACP here, not just because I've been doing it for my entire life, since I started in Michigan, where my pastor was also the president, but because of your leadership and because of the vision that you have for our community being inclusive, expansive, and you're revolutionary. And I'm just grateful to be able to say I know.
0:46:03
Quentin Savwoir
Oh, you're the best. Thanks, Will. I appreciate that. That was really kind. Our friend. Thank you. Welcome.
0:46:09
Will Rucker
This has been compassionate. Las Vegas. The podcast. I'm Will Rucker, and as I always remind you, you are not just a drop in the ocean, you are the entire ocean in a drop. And what you do matters so live compassionately.
