The day of the Muslim ban, there were
so many emotions that I was feeling.
[News Clip]: "President Trump is defending "
"a temporary travel ban for seven"
"Muslim majority countries."
I thought about my family,
who's had seven Marines
that served in Iraq and Afghanistan,
the New York Police Department;
how this was a betrayal to their service
to this nation.
A Muslim ban that basically said,
"You are not welcome here because you are Yemeni."
I consider myself
one of those people
who's been put on the face of the earth
to be a change agent.
"No hate no fear."
"Our country was built on the backs of immigrants."
The day of the Muslim ban,
I organized an emergency meeting
with the Yemeni-American community.
They were so outraged.
When Yemeni-Americans migrated to New York,
they landed at Brooklyn Borough Hall.
Many of them then went off to open up stores
which are now called "bodegas".
There are between four to six thousand bodegas
across New York City owned by Yemeni-Americans.
They never, ever were interested in challenging government,
but the Muslim ban woke them up.
They felt that they needed to take a stand.
And so, Zaid, a fellow Yemeni-American, said,
"Why don't we do a strike?"
"Close about two hundred stores."
I said, "Okay so when do you guys want to do this?"
And he said, "Thursday."
I was like, "What?"
We had four days.
(upbeat music)
My media head starts thinking about this and I'm like,
"If you really want to send a strong message,"
"you close a thousand stores and we hold a rally."
I called up the Borough President, Eric Adams.
"Eric, I need your help."
"It has to be Brooklyn Borough Hall."
He's like, "Okay, that's cutting it really close."
And I was like, "What's going on that day?
They're like,
"We have the Chinese New Year event happening that night."
I called back Zaid and he said,
"Brooklyn Borough Hall?"
And I was like, "Yes" and he was like,
"Wow, that's really big."
We made over a thousand posters
and we distributed to the stores
and the store owners pasted it on their windows:
"We're closing from 12:00 to 8:00 pm."
They were literally delivering posters
as late as Thursday 3:00 am.
We were talking about who was going to MC,
and they're like, "You're gonna MC."
"What do you mean, 'who's gonna MC'?"
"You're MCing this."
I was like, "Oh, my God."
The day of the rally, it is freezing cold in the plaza.
At 12 o'clock, the stores shut down.
- [News Clip] "Yemeni owners of bodegas"
"across the city closing up shop at 12 noon."
There were two bodegas,
they never close their doors, never.
When they went to lock the doors,
the lock fell apart.
12:30, I get a call:
"Debbie, what time did you tell people to come?"
- And I said, "4:30."
He's like, "Debbie, we have fifty people outside."
The numbers just kept growing.
At 1:30, Stefan calls me again,
"There are five hundred people outside!"
"People are hanging off the fringe of the flags."
(crowd yelling)
I finally make my way there
at 3:00 O'clock.
And all I see is a sea of people,
I was like, "Oh, my God, how did this happen?"
"Did we really do this?"
Close to six thousand people.
Young, old, American flags swinging everywhere.
This is (in Arabic) Borough Hall.
Borough Hall for the Yemenis!
[Debbie]: "You should be absolutely proud!"
We were covered by the 'New York Times',
by 'Slate',
'LA Times'.
Every media outlet covered us.
[Crowd]: "This is what democracy looks like!"
My eyes swelled with tears
and I felt so much pride
to see my community actually take a political stand.
[Debbie]: "You are powerful!"
We took that energy and formed the Yemeni-American
Merchants Association to make sure they have a voice
and a place at the table.
And to say, "This sleeping giant is no longer sleeping."