<p>When survival depends on closeness to the dominant culture, something is always at stake. Access can mean safety, stability, or opportunity—but it can also come with quiet losses we’re taught not to name.</p><p><strong>What parts of ourselves get sacrificed when survival requires assimilation?</strong>Is it our language? Our anger? Our softness? Our truth?Too often, survival demands that we edit ourselves to remain acceptable, palatable, or non-threatening. Proximity to power can reward silence, compliance, and distance from our own communities—while calling it “growth” or “professionalism.”</p><p>At the same time, power rarely needs to police itself.</p><p><strong>Who benefits when we police each other instead of questioning the system?</strong>When harm is redirected inward—toward our peers, our communities, or ourselves—the system remains intact. Division becomes a distraction. Respectability becomes a tool. And accountability gets misplaced.</p><p>This episode invites us to pause and interrogate what we’ve normalized:</p><p>* The cost of access</p><p>* The illusion of protection through proximity</p><p>* The ways power survives by recruiting gatekeepers instead of challengers</p><p><em>Proximity to Power</em> is not about rejecting opportunity—it’s about naming the price we’re asked to pay and deciding, consciously, what we are no longer willing to give up.</p><p>🎧 <strong>Listen in. Reflect honestly. Choose intentionally.</strong></p><p>Subscribe To The Rooted & Rewired Youtube Channel for more-we are just getting started: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcy9yztsgj3An9bs1rWIKhQ/</p><p>Rooted in Truth,</p><p>Aiysha </p><p><p>The Rooted & Rewired Podcast™ is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.</p></p><p></p> <br/><br/>This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://therootedwithaiyshaproductions.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&#38;utm_campaign=CTA_2">therootedwithaiyshaproductions.substack.com/subscribe</a>