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Qasim Rashid is a human rights lawyer who built his career fighting for survivors of domestic violence, asylum seekers, and low income communities. He and his family immigrated from Pakistan to the United States with his family when he was five. As a child, Qasim grew up in Section 8 housing in DuPage county. Qasim’s parents, who were both teachers, instilled in him a deep commitment of service to humanity and upholding justice. Throughout his legal career, Qasim has seen how the country’s laws and systems unfairly worked for those who already had money and power and left everyone else behind. He’s running for Congress to demand justice and ensure that the government works for everyone. Outside of public service, Qasim is an author, lawyer, and dad joke aficionado. The loves of his and Ayesha’s lives are their three children, aged 14, 10, and 7. They are trying to convince Qasim to adopt a special breed of dog that gets sad when you feed it cantaloupe…known as a melon collie.
What You Will Hear:
- Qasim’s upbringing and being an immigrant
- Anti-blackness and immigration
- The depth of Islamophobia in the USA
- Post 9/11 unity myth
- How Qasim got in to law and his specific practice
- Service to humanity
- The power of collaborative education
- Gun control and the right wing media's indoctrination tactics
- Police brutality and the injustice system in the US
- Qualified immunity and psychological testing
- Climate crisis and poverty stats
- What true government powered by the people could look like
- Engaging the global majority
Quotes:
“In Pakistan I'm not really Pakistani because I was raised in the United States and the United States I'm not really American because I wasn't born here and so there's a constant struggle that's in the back of your mind and it's the duality that society wants you to force you into a box.”
“ I've been extraordinarily fortunate to have brilliant scholars guide me and teach me and the good fortune to have the sense to shut up and listen.”
“If you wanna talk to me about your values, show me your actions and service to humanity, “
“For me greatest form of worship is to serve all humanity.”
“Service to others is the rent you pay for your time here on Earth.” - Muhammed Ali
“I think foundationally it's important that people find their comfort zone and learn to step out of it. That's really where life begins to have, in my view, more value, more meaning and more sustainability.”
“I believe healthcare is a fundamental human right and just because someone is a bigot or a racist or an islamophobe or a homophobe doesn't change the fact that healthcare is a fundamental human right and we need to provide that support no matter what.”
“The reality is that if we continue to send law enforcement for issues that don't reflect their training, then we are perpetuating a system of violence…..because we're asking them to do things that they're just not trained to do.”
“Law enforcement responds to crime, but a living wage, healthcare, access, education, clean food, air and water, prevent crime. So if we want safer communities, invest in people, not punishments.”
“It is not diversity for the sake of diversity, it's representation for the sake of reality.”
“For us to dismantle these systems of white supremacy and the economic injustice that they uphold, we have to create a sense of reality.”
“Ensuring children have leaders and mentors that have their lived experiences allows our children to have better lived experiences as well.”
“Those systems of white supremacy are dismantled when we uphold justice, when we have representation that reflects reality and we have a multiracial, multi-cultural, multi-gender coalition of people working together for that common cause of justice.”
“ I know that which I'm asking you is impossible, but the impossible is the least that we can demand. When you look at the spectacle of human history in general and black history in particular, you are emboldened by witnessing nothing less than the perpetual achievement of the impossible.” - James Baldwin
Mentioned
@qasimrashid
Virginia Poverty Law Center
Mary Robinette
James Baldwin
