In this episode of the Edvolution Podcast with host, Shireen Jaffer, Veline tells us her story about growing up with a father who served as an officer in the Los Angeles Police Department and a passionate mother who took her to her first protest when Veline was still in a stroller. She shares her experiences of growing up in a white suburban neighborhood as a brown woman and the ideological differences within her community. We further talk about her feelings of being a daughter of a police officer with the current debates in our society, as well as the work she’s currently doing for racial justice, equity, and inclusion.
About Veline Mojarro
Veline Mojarro is Latinx Chicana committed to our collective liberation as an educator, reproductive justice advocate, an consultant from Los Angeles, California. Her work operates at the intersection of art, social justice, and equity. She is a co-founder of SHIFT: Sexual Harassment Prevention, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Consulting and led every one, a Goldenvoice initiative to prevent and stop any form of harassment at Coachella and Stagecoach music festivals as a Director of Equity, Safety, and Inclusion. She previously was a Lecturer in the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance at UCLA, where she also served as Director of Community Programs for the UCLA Art and Global Health Center.
In this episode of the Edvolution Podcast with host, Shireen Jaffer, Veline tells us her story about growing up with a father who served as an officer in the Los Angeles Police Department and a passionate mother who took her to her first protest when Veline was still in a stroller. She shares her experiences of growing up in a white suburban neighborhood as a brown woman and the ideological differences within her community. We further talk about her feelings of being a daughter of a police officer with the current debates in our society, as well as the work she’s currently doing for racial justice, equity, and inclusion.
About Veline Mojarro
Veline Mojarro is Latinx Chicana committed to our collective liberation as an educator, reproductive justice advocate, an consultant from Los Angeles, California. Her work operates at the intersection of art, social justice, and equity. She is a co-founder of SHIFT: Sexual Harassment Prevention, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Consulting and led every one, a Goldenvoice initiative to prevent and stop any form of harassment at Coachella and Stagecoach music festivals as a Director of Equity, Safety, and Inclusion. She previously was a Lecturer in the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance at UCLA, where she also served as Director of Community Programs for the UCLA Art and Global Health Center.
Shireen Jaffer 0:00
Hi, everybody. Welcome to the evolution podcast where we question what makes our life truly ours. I'm Shireen Jaffer, and I'm very excited to introduce you to some incredible people with fascinating stories. I have Veline Mojarro with me. She and I were introduced through a mutual friend of ours class her giving her a shout out. valine has been working in equity, diversity inclusion, preventing sexual harassment for the past few years. And it's been so powerful following their work and seeing everything that they've been doing specially with what we've got going on in our current climate. So valene thank you so much for being here. And I'm excited to hear about your story.
Veline Mojarro 0:42
Thanks so much Shireen. And I really appreciate being on the podcast today. I think I'm really present and I know you are to like you said to the current climate and how urgent these conversations are around equity inclusion and racial justice and harassment prevention. Because what we're witnessing right now is the revolution happening in real time. And I'm so happy to be a part of it and really feel grounded in my purpose in supporting these conversations going forward for all people, but especially for non black folks of color.
Shireen Jaffer 1:19
Yeah, absolutely. I think conversations are crucial. Knowing how to act, and what the opportunities are for us to become allies is absolutely necessary. So very happy to be hearing from you and, and learning from you and all of the work you're doing. So, you know, usually, everyone I know that is in the space and talking about inclusion and equity. They're excited about it, and they're passionate about it, and they get involved with it due to some personal inspiration or some personal experience. So I really want to start, you know, I want to learn a little bit more about your background. You know, how you grew up. Where are you grew up. Let's let's start there. Tell me a little bit more about your childhood.
Race, Childhood, and Dualities (2:05)
Veline Mojarro 2:05
Yeah, that is that is it you hit the nail on the head that is my whole life experience is what led me to co founding shift with caser and Natalie, customer Mohammed and Natalie buoy. I am Latin x Chicana Mexican American descent and born and raised in the greater Los Angeles area, my whole life and I come from a really loud, beautiful Mexican American, Chicano Latin mixed family. And that's really where my work started. My mom, you know, was a part of the Chicano Chicano movement here in Los Angeles and always told us stories about that and always told us about stories of resistance and experiencing racism in her own life. And on the opposite spectrum, my father As a retired LAPD officer, and there was a constant debate and tension in our home because of there are two very different ideological differences. And those are my training grounds, though. That's where I learned about why it's important to stand up for folks that look like me, but also folks that don't look like me. That's where I learned how deeply rooted anti blackness is in all communities, and especially in my community. That's where I learned about how I needed to stand up for myself as a, as a little young woman, kind of learning to navigate. And all of that was in the backdrop I should say, of my parents both, you know, coming up, working class, moved us into a neighborhood that they thought was going to help us move forward and progress and I put progress in quotations into whites. suburbia and having a really liberal outspoken mother. And a big loud Mexican family in the middle of white suburbia was completely shaped the way I confronted so many of these systems of oppression. And so that really is the backdrop of my life. And that has really motivated me for the entirety of my life going to always being in mostly white spaces always being kind of the token person of color in white spaces and knowing how to code switch and navigate my way, my way through that, to be able to survive in those spaces, but also really like, feeling the weight of having to do that, you know, my sisters like to joke about, you know, where I'm at and how none of it is a coincidence. And tell me you know, my first protests was in a stroller, which is true, and you know, I'm all My mom brought us up in that kind of way of going to protests of fighting for what you believe in. And that just translated through my whole life I was always involved in those types of organizations always organizing work. Also, I have to shout out a huge part of my anti racist work has been shaped and really grown and blossom through the people's Institute for survival and beyond and their undoing racism training. I highly highly, highly recommend that training for anyone who wants to get very real with themselves and very real about the context that we're living in in the United States.
Shireen Jaffer 5:36
I love that and thank you so much for sharing that entire background and I'm you know, when you said you've got your got a mom and you've got your LAPD tab, and I can't even imagine those discussions at the dinner table. And I want to I want to dig a little deeper into all the moving into a white suburbia. I had something similar happened to me which, you know, we can go into a little bit later. But talk to us, you know, growing up, and being in white suburbia and coming from this big loud Mexican family. What? Can you share some stories or some experiences where you really we're aware of the color of your skin?
Veline Mojarro 6:22
Yeah. Oh my goodness, there's so many and I also think I'm the youngest of five I should name also witnessing and hearing about my siblings experiences. Oh, I think I remember one day trying to invite a girl from school. I think I was in first or kindergarten over for dinner at my house because my mom was making enchiladas. And I was like, so excited to share because my mom's and she was like, one of my favorite dishes. And she goes, Oh, what's that? This this moment of a video Like really shook as like a little, you know, five or six year old and not understanding why that was ill to someone else. But also, you know, registered all the stories that I had heard and I was very present like race conversations were very explicit in my house. My mom never tried to shelter us from that. And I think it's really good because we were confronted with it anyways, in the context we're living. But that's like a really clear moment that I've never forgotten. living there. I mean, we got called everything from beaners. I mean, in high school, I remember girls coming up to me and commenting on my tans. Were just funny. I was like, This isn't a tan, y'all, this is my skin.
Um, and, you know, but I like played with it and I leaned into it and I like, you know, would mess with them like I'm snarky. And you're being called exotic and you know, and also like, Like responding to that and being defined and that I remember distinctly in high school, I went to Super bougie a, all girls Catholic, private high school, and I remember every single mile, they'd always be like bleeding. It's like you're, you're people's Independence Day. And I would get so annoyed because it wasn't it's not it's an important date, but it's not. And so on. This he says the September day, which is his independence day, which is September 16, I would intentionally like pin the Mexican flag on my backpack, so that people would like know, and stop annoying me and I could give a little history lesson. So you know, there's so many experiences of things that I experienced and I witnessed my family experience. And then there's you know, there's the more explicit things and then there's a more subtle things that that are harder to name, you know, the looks the stairs, the keeping quiet sort of the O's interestings you know, that speak loud, right? That just let you know that you're different and you don't belong. So as much as my parents tried. It was very they never they as in the community we lived in never let us forget who we were.
Shireen Jaffer 9:20
Yeah. So they again, thank you for sharing that I. So you had mentioned even your parents moved you for progress. Tell me why you wanted to put those in quotation marks. Yeah. Tell me more there.
Veline Mojarro 9:35
Yeah. And I also recognize that's not fair. And I've had these conversations with my parents too, because I really recognize that there they were just doing their best and that that is the, you know, the American dream and the American narrative is to, you know, move into these neighborhoods that are more affluent that tend to have more white people sometimes, right. And I appreciated that Because it made me who I was. And I appreciate the hard work that they were doing because like I said they were doing their best and what they thought was right. And I also recognize what we, what we let go of in the process of of, you know, progress of moving to an affluent, affluent area of, you know, whether that's making more money or putting us in, quote, unquote, better schools. And though and there's, you know, there's multiple truths there. Yes, we did get a really good education. Yes, we did. Learn how to articulate ourselves in mostly white settings. And I'm grateful for all that. And I'm also present to that we all didn't get to learn Spanish because my dad didn't want us growing up with accents. So we all had to collectively go relearn Spanish for ourselves later in life, whether that was traveling or or whatever. Not things things were with the way we also internalize. I think I felt really grateful for always having a sharp lens at a little age or yet when I was younger, because I saw what was happening, and I knew it was wrong, it was happening to my siblings. And so I knew that I had to be proud about being Mexican, I knew that I had to be proud of my brown skin. I knew that. And I don't think my siblings were afford, especially the older ones were afforded that because they were just kind of thrown in with the wolves. And so I say progress, because I want to hold the tension of recognizing that it did support us in the like, in the in the kind of more material way and the system of capitalism for us to progress. But I also recognizing the ways that we were also impacted. That, you know, also made us resilient, but I hold it all. It's complex.
Shireen Jaffer 11:56
Yeah, absolutely. It is complex. I think there's a lot of dualities and Place I think there's a lot of dissonance in place. And that just because it's not it's not simple. It is absolutely complex. You know, there's there's a lot right now obviously happening with police versus us, right, the police versus us, the law enforcement versus us and you've grown up with a mom who took you out to every protest. And then you grew up with an LAPD dad. So how are you feeling right now with that conflict taking place?
The Importance of Understanding and Reclaiming History (12:33)
Veline Mojarro 12:33
Yeah, for sure. I should also say they're divorced. That tension value. I mean, they doors that are super young, it's not, you know, but um, yeah. So yeah, I hear that. I hear that and I feel really fortunate to be able to also think about because I talked to my dad too about, you know, and he's about being a police officer and I'm gonna I'm gonna get a little. I'm gonna I'm gonna just talk about something real quick. So, I my father is not the only police officer, my family I have a couple but he's obviously the most present in that. But I recognize the history of police officers in this country and the impact that they've had. And the intention ality of specifically having people of color be police officers. So a police officer, the role and the job actually came from a role in job that was on slave plantations called the overseer. And the overseers job was strictly to oversee the enslaved peoples to police them to report them to oftentimes murder them if they stepped out of line. And when slavery was abolished, That job turned into so many different things. It also should be noted that that job was also specifically and intentionally and strategically forced upon enslaved peoples to also take on so a lot of Overseers were also enslaved peoples. Because this system that was created a capitalism or white supremacy or racism or however you want to name it, recognize that creating divide within community because they'd already created the divide between white and black, but creating even more of a divide in that it was more powerful than unsustainable to maintain this power dynamic. And so, and that job transform and translate it if you say, you know, overseer 10 times fast, you'll eventually start saying officer, and that is that is the history and the trajectory of the police officer. And while I recognize and I think and it makes me really sad when I think about specifically the Latin x company unity in their role in the police department and I have a lot of family there. I think about how that is their step that they that they think they that they made a choice to make in order for progress. And I and I agree. All right, think about that in my father and like, my father was the oldest of nine people, nine, nine kids, they grew up, you know, he migrated to the US without papers got deported, once or twice, I can't even remember. So he really had to fully commit and believe in this idea of the American dream. And his options were limited. And the police station was right around the corner from his house and that that's, that was his the way he saw his way out. So I recognize that choice and I understand his his need to make that choice and, and then, when you get indoctrinated into that system, you get indoctrinated. into a value set that has the remnants and the history of that overseer like title, right, that overseer type role. I want to believe the police officers can be community oriented and work within community but I will be super honest having lived with police, a police officer having been raised around a lot of police officers, the mentality that if you are indoctrinated with does not allow for humanity and it does not allow for a Community Care Center framework that really is what we need right now for our community. And so what I feel like his I feel like there needs to be I mean, I think we need to completely revamped the criminal justice system, not just not just cops because then it's labor union. contracts. It is the way funding is you know, it's so many other things. I think it's easy to just like hone in on on cost. Because it's the most direct and like person to person impact, and I get that and that's real. But there is a lot of things that we need to be addressing around that. So I'm scared for, you know, the real humans that are having to create violence and in turn put themselves in violent situations and have to react without humanity. I'm scared for their humanity and their lives. And I also recognize that that or that doesn't choice. It's not a choice to be black, right? It's not a choice to be a person of color, but it's a choice to take on a job to some degree. And so I feel conflicted. But I also recognize that this is the necessary this uprising is necessary for our our humanity.
Shireen Jaffer 17:49
Well, it's it's so interesting because one I didn't even realize where officer came from. So thank you for educating us that that Interesting, I want to go back to a comment you had made earlier, you had talked about the anti blackness in your community. Tell me a little bit about how that manifested in experiences you had growing up.
Veline Mojarro 18:13
Yeah, I mean, I am a darker skinned, like, child out of all my siblings. I'm honestly like, you know, that's so subjective, but within my family context, that's I was I was always known as like, the darker skinned child. You know, they'd make fun. I mean, I mean, it was all in love and fun, you know, whenever and I bring it up. Now. They're like, Oh, my God, you're so sensitive, and I didn't internalize it, but I'm like, but that that could be internalized, that could have messed me up around, you know, saying I was adopted or like, you know, pretending that you know, I wasn't related or whatever, just like silly sibling stuff that you know, they do to be mean to their younger siblings, but also just like recognizing The way our Latin x community uses words to describe black people to describe darker skinned family members versus lighter skinned family members, the way that's valued the way they're treated. I think the way that we have strategically been pinned against each other specifically Latin x and the black community because we are oftentimes the two communities that are most impacted by these systems. And so of course, no one wants to be like the other but specifically a lot. Next community. We're constantly pushing ourselves away, even though so much of our, our history and our roots are rooted in the African diaspora. But we're concentrating to push away ourselves from blackness and approximate ourselves to whiteness, that pendulum is like so real because whiteness is associated with success and capital and progress in quotations. And so I get it I get it. But now we are in a moment where we're really starting to confront that and address that in a real way. But, you know, anti blackness shows up in colorism. It shows up in words. It shows up in the ways we treat people. It shows up in the ways we are the countries where we come from strategically leave out the history of Afro Latinos within our history like I was taught, I wasn't taught that there were Afro mcdonnell's Afro Mexicans in Mexico, I never ever knew about that in my entire life. And I remember I would live there for two years after college and I was like, done with us. But I went live there with my cousins. I remember going to visit a specific place in Mexico, that I grew specifically that had a slave port. And I remember going there and seeing all the Afro Mexicans and being like, what is going like I was so fun. Like, I was like, how come no one ever talked to me about this? Like, how can we don't talk about this not we as an only my family, but the literal like, Mexican country like why don't we talk about this? And and that like literally shows up in in the way that the government operates. I mean, Afro McConnell's weren't put on the census. So I think they were formally recognized in 2015. But I don't think they actually were put on the census until like, this year. It's just it's the erasure that we've also inherited to around Afro Latino folks within all our different, you know, countries and contexts is, is very real and very present. And that all comes back from the transatlantic slave trade. Like I know people are like, oh, slavery was so long, but like, was it like, really wasn't it Like trajectory of our country in our history and our economic like capital system. It wasn't and there are so roots of it that still live in our legislation in the way we operate today. So, yeah, I got I got I want real and right now, but
Shireen Jaffer 22:16
yeah, I mean, there's Yeah. And there's also so many implications. And again, those second order third order consequences that we're still living up so freaking lately, obviously, we're still living. And yeah, it wasn't in the context of everything. It was not that long ago.
Veline Mojarro 22:32
I mean, my parents lived, you know, we're still alive. I mean, they were alive in segregation, like, you know, like they, it's, it's just it's allowed to me my mom talks about they briefly moved up into when she was younger, they briefly moved up into Central California and we're doing farm working work. But they were in as farm workers laborers. Ask the Catholic school nearby and they got a scholarship today. Go to an affluent Catholic school and she remembers and just the her experience there as a young Brown Girl, and like having different water fountains and like I'm like, Yo, this, this is not so removed from us and the scent, and maybe they like might be removed in the sense of like there's newer laws or there's more decorum or there's more like politic around it, but the sentiments and the value sets and the way it actually manifests and the way we treat people in our day to day have not because we haven't actually been honest about it.
The Roles of Protesting and Supporting (23:37)
Shireen Jaffer 23:37
So right now, there's a lot of, like, uncertainty around protests. I think obviously, there's a lot of people that are Yes, peaceful protests. I'm they're awesome. And I think there's a lot of people that are scared. They don't know how to feel about protests. They don't know if you know they should, like go out and be part of wine. So when I from personal Oh, I want to understand, you know, growing up with your mom being such a huge inspiration on you, when it came to showing up, you know, at these protests, what were what were those experiences like for you? You know, again, being part of a community where I'm assuming most of your friends or the people you grew up with weren't really being part of those protests. Talk to me on the personal side of things. Oh,
Veline Mojarro 24:24
yeah. I think, like, yeah, like you said, I, that muscle of protest was given to me at a really young age. And I've, you know, taken that on in my own life, or my own life trajectory as well. And I recognize people's hesitation to engage in that. And I don't judge that. And I also want to honor people's excitement around it too. And want to also urge if there is excitement, if there is energy that you're really being strategic and listening To the folks who are leading in, in this case, that is a black lives matter movement. There's a lot of people that are just excited to just be out there and not actually following the organized strategy that is being given to us by the leadership of this moment. And are causing more, you know, problems for the movement. And so really being mindful if you are going to go protest and do that, making sure you're really aligning with the the values of the leadership at hand. But I also there are so many other ways to have protests is something that doesn't feel accessible to you. There's so many other ways to be a part and be in solidarity with this uprising. I want to call in I just pulled it up right now so I could look at it. This beautiful image, I encourage folks to look it up that was created by Deepa ire. I just called mapping our roles in a social change ecosystem. And then recognizing Everyone has their distinct roles and she just very briefly kind of like named the offerings that she gives, but it's, you know, we have guides. We have weavers, we have experimenters, we have frontline responders. We have visionaries, we have builders, we have the caregivers, the disruptors, which is like feels very our disruptors are very loud and taking on a lot of of the the meat of this right right now. We have the healers, we have the storytellers. And so recognizing that there are so many pathways for us to uplift this moment now to I think is something that I'll offer for folks to think about. I know my sister really address you know, my mom raised us about this. My my sister who has two babies really wanted to go and be out there and I told her No, because she has two babies, and I need her to see home and take care and raise anti-racist babies. Like, I need her to, like do that, like, because we can't have, you know, like they need to help. She needs to help create the generation that's going to push us ahead. So like that, you know, that's a role, right? I think right now I'm recognizing Well, I do I have gone to some of the demonstrations and I think younger baleen would be out there every day and really be in that space. I think I'm recognizing my role right now specifically with shift is like, Okay, this is about offering education. It's about holding space and prompt processing for people. It's specifically I feel like calling in my next community right now into like, Alright, y'all, like we're confronted now. Like, what are we going to do you know, and calling up into our collective liberation in this movement, So, yeah, I feel my heart is with the folks that are demonstrating and out there. And I think everyone has a purpose and our role in this movement if they, if they stand to be they choose to be in solidarity,
Shireen Jaffer 28:16
right? And I think that's so important to call out everyone's Park can be totally different. And you can show up in so many different ways. And I think there is this sentiment right now going around where you have to protest or you're not supporting and I read and I, we had a conversation when the demonstration started. And, you know, we said we're not going to go out there and demonstrate in that way, but we're showing our support in so many different ways. Similar to you, you know, the work we're doing professionally has so much to do with educating people differently and really helping them understand the things that we have to unlearn as a society the things that we learned in our education system work, so one dimensional and there So much left out about our history that has really influenced how we see the world and how we see race, how we see gender and how we see our institutions. So a lot of the work we're doing is helping, you know, building a product right now and creating conversations and creating spaces where people can start to question and seek answers and be part of these discussions that are informative and thoughtful and safe. Right. And so he and I said, look like that's what we need to do. And for us demonstrating doesn't allow us to be the best supporters. And similar to you, like my heart is with them with every single one of them. That's, you know, out there, but it's so important to call that out. Because if you're feeling like if you're feeling guilty for not being out there, don't because you're wasting time feeling guilty. You know, but if there was, if you missed it, I mean, there's so many ways you can contribute, I promise, but I'm sure valine at the end of this can even share resources from read that for you to get involved, but don't feel guilty, that's not going to help you and it's not going to help anyone around you.
Veline Mojarro 30:06
Yeah, thank you for naming that. Shireen that's so important. I think I've been talking to a lot of just friends this week that are confronting this, these conversations in a real way for the first time in their lives and, you know, guilt as a part of the process. But you ain't helping anybody by saying they're, you know, and now, the moment you know, like, your guilt isn't servicing anyone? And I think, yeah, it's really important to come present to that, because I think that guilt comes from like, oh, recognizing how complicit I've been in all of this and then feeling like I can't respond to the direct action. And the reality of it is is like you said, there's so many ways like think about, like the way our capitals being distributed right now, like, black folks are actually are asking for Reparations, right? Like, okay, where can you put your money into these organizations right now that are doing the work on the ground that are out there that are you know, Creating, you know, all these different programs and spaces to support different communities. And so like you said, y'all are creating this platform, which I 100% agree is like, we need this, we need to have real conversations about unpacking these things that we think we've known to be true our whole lives that we're recognizing, like, No, these things are only as true as we allow them to believe to believe they were true. One of my anti-racist mentors talks about this, like an a metaphor of like, the Monopoly game. And she's like, you know, we know I didn't know this, but she's only we know that the person that wins monopolies The first one is the person who gets on the board first. And the thing about how this country has the trajectory of this country is that white people have been on the board of Monopoly for centuries or years or you know, whatever before folks of color ever got a chance. And so now, when this progress that we're talking about when when communities of color start to get on the Monopoly board, we internalize all of that to like, we don't belong there. That's not for us. We don't deserve that we aren't worthy of that. And that's a lot that internalized racism and prejudice is a lot and unpack too so I think a lot of that is also been informed by that because historically we've been denied of those spaces so I'm sure so it's it's it's a lot of which I feel like is you know, the thematic of your work is like unlearning the unlearning and really like diving deeper into what what we lost and I say be is and Well, everyone, all people to like, in the name of progress, or capitalism, but yeah, I'm sounding hella radical. I am radical. Anyways, you know what I mean?
Moving from Conversations to Real Change (32:55)
Shireen Jaffer 32:55
Yeah, totally. Totally. I think i think it's it's important to also know This is a loss for everyone. And all people, not just people of color, all people and right and I raised my husband, we were talking about this last night because this week has been. I mean, this week has been rough time stamping at June 4. So this first week of June has just been, you know, everything. Yeah, it's just been rough. And I was talking to Ray and I was like, I'm so frustrated because I can't believe that our country as like as a species, like I can't believe this is where we are. We're so damn behind. Like, I don't know why race and gender and age and all these things. Like, first of all, we as you know, humans decided to even put those labels on it in the first place. And then we've chosen to take those labels and create such stark differences. And, and it's sad. It's sad because there's so much inefficiency in that we would be so much farther on Long if we collaborated aggressively, and we empowered and we were open to new ideas. So yeah, I think it's a frickin loss for everyone. And the problem is we've had these conversations before, you know, and a lot of the conversations I'm a part of mouth, like, what happened? What happened to all these conversations we're having back in the 60s. Like what what happened to those conversations?
Veline Mojarro 34:27
Yeah, yeah. There's so much that you just said right now that I'm like, Yes, all of it. I think I want to talk through a couple things you said about we're all impacted because because I think a big part of the anti racist work that I have witnessed through the people's into percent survival and beyond is also calling in white folks as well and thinking about before you were wait your people in your lineage or something else? And in thinking about that, it really started to make me think about what all of us, you know, like you're saying, like had like gave up to believe, to put belief in this system belief in this progress. And I think we're in a moment right now we're starting to be like, Oh, yeah, this isn't working like this, this some this belief isn't working and we're starting to question everything. And this is what that uprising is, it's this unlearning and recognizing like, No, these things need to be, if not completely abolished, completely restructure, right like we're starting to recognize our criminal justice system is not working, our financial system is not working. our healthcare system is not working like all these things that we've held to be true and truth. And staples and structures of our world are quite literally, you know, dismantling in front of our eyes. I'd like to believe so well, who knows? We'll see how we get out of this. But um, Again, I think it's cyclical, right? Like you were saying the way that we were having these conversations in the 60s, why? Why are we coming back to them? And I think because on a fundamental level, we didn't really dismantle these systems. So I really hope that we start to dismantle these systems. So we can, we can build a new and I think I also want to call us into because you're right, it is. It is a hard time and there's a lot of violence and people are losing their lives and all major movements in the world had an uprising. There was an uprising, and every week, I mean, American independence, like, talk about looting. I mean, the Boston Tea Party y'all like, like, I know, these things feel far away, but they're literally the way like, This country was built on rebellion. We have the quote, unquote, you know, ethics based on rebellion, like the abolition of slavery wasn't just happening. Dude over, you know, people fought for that there was a full on uprising for that. The, you know, the the death of MLK sparked quote unquote, riots or uprising for six days. But then we got the Civil Rights Act. And that's just in our country. There's so many examples globally. I mean, thinking about LGBTQ rights and pride, specifically this beautiful parade that we have now that we get to celebrate peacefully as so much so that even corporations are jumping on the bandwagon or have been for a couple of years like that started because a black trans woman and a next trans woman decided that they were going to start an uprising and that black trans woman through a brick and that and that it was an uprising like all these things came from people saying Enough is enough. And we are going to risk everything because we need change. We need this to happen. So my hope is that we come out of this really Better and restructuring and really thinking about how we're funding and prioritizing these systems specifically, you know, we're being really present to to the police department in the criminal justice system, but it's so much more, right. Like, we have to unpack the health care system. And you know, all the things I said, but yeah,
Shireen Jaffer 38:24
you know, there's, yeah, absolutely. And obviously, I appreciate you guys doing the work that you're doing. Can you talk a little bit more about shift and what you've got going on?
Veline Mojarro 38:34
Sure. So, we are a equity inclusion and sexual harassment prevention consulting group. So what that means is that we support these hard conversations around race, gender and equity in workspaces and beyond. And these conversations, we then Support into actionable steps and we support organizations, companies, individuals, whatever, like whatever industries through ways that they can make the sustainable change towards a more equitable space, specifically around a racial and gender justice lens, and actual steps. So creating long term plans or long term programs or long term campaigns, whatever the needs may be, is something that we respond to. But it all starts with this this conversation, these workshops, these trainings, and from there we grow and we move and we really start to get get, our tagline is shifting the culture of complacency, right. We're there to ignite to move to get people to get excited about this work and all excited but also prioritize it and understand the urgency of it. We are we don't have all the answers and we're definitely not the experts and we come from we humbly come from Amazing elders and people and educators that we have learned so much from, but we are there to hold a framework and hold people accountable to pushing themselves and their growing edge to do better and to create more equitable space.
Shireen Jaffer 40:17
Yeah, that's very beautifully said. Well, Veline, thank you for expanding your energy here. And sharing your story with us. How can our listeners get in touch with you and follow your work?
Veline Mojarro 40:32
Yeah, no, it was my pleasure Shireen. I'm just so grateful you have this platform and I can't wait to see how. Yeah, you and your partner continue to like make this space for these conversations. But yeah, folks can get ahold of me and our and the work at shift on our Instagram it's at shifting the culture or a website, which is WWE dot shifting culture.co, that's 'co' um, and yeah, you can contact us there if you want to learn more about all the things I just talked about
Shireen Jaffer 41:09
awesome.