- 6 months ago
Next-Gen activists are fighting the good fight while trying to take care of their mental health, but truth be told, the girls are tired. Amidst trying to achieve balance, being realistic about bandwidth, and preventing burnout, Gen-Z activists are trying to cope with the world around them that doesn't seem to stop. In this conversation, we will explore how the next generation's taking on being woke beyond performative activism, how Roe v. Wade and reproductive rights are impacting our activists today, and how to indulge in self-care amidst the headlines.
Category
đ ď¸
LifestyleTranscript
00:00hey hey okay I have a serious question did y'all get that dance because I have this short skirt
00:14on that I could barely walk up the stairs with I wanted to I wanted to do that but it's like
00:20one popped and everything out and it's like okay but I mean I think I might need a little few more
00:26tries to get that but let's give it up for Ayanna though she had y'all hype she did that so I know I
00:35don't have to tell y'all that there is a lot going on in this world right now especially for us women
00:41and most definitely for us black women and brown women but one thing I love about my Gen Z community
00:48is that we are not the type to just sit silent on the sidelines and let things go on if there's
00:53something happening and we have something to say we're going to speak it and we're going to take
00:57action and we're going to encourage everybody around us to get on board right exactly because
01:01we don't play that and that's exactly what the next conversation is all about here to help get
01:06started please welcome to the stage miss kenya hunter oh you're beautiful
01:23hello beautiful black women how are y'all today my name is kenya hunter i'm the health reporter at
01:29capital b atlanta we're a brand new publication launched on january 31st and we write about the
01:34black people in the city so specifically focusing on black women black folks in atlanta black residents
01:40in atlanta so y'all give us a follow that's at capital b underscore atl um and i thank y'all for
01:46joining me today are y'all happy to be here have y'all been having fun i definitely saw y'all dancing and
01:54not these shoes not for me not today but joining me today are two incredible women who truly need no
02:00introduction and together we're going to be talking about activism in 2022 the good the bad and the
02:07and the what the hell of activism so first off please welcome jamesa bailey the who is the director
02:14of black campaigns at planned parenthood federation of america
02:21and then following her is clark atlanta senior
02:25i'm sorry y'all i'm a little nervous clark atlanta university senior mariah young who is
02:29currently
02:33the vice president of planned parenthood generation action at clark atlanta
02:41clark atlanta in the building today
02:44i hear y'all shout out shout out to the auc
02:48so let's get into it how are y'all doing today we're good so excited to be here great lovely to see
02:53everybody y'all look beautiful thank you so let's go ahead and get into it so if there's
02:59one thing we've learned about activism in today's culture it's that there's no one good way to use
03:04your voice for good so to start i'd like to ask um both of you how would you define activism in 2022
03:11from where each of you sit
03:12um hey y'all thank y'all so much for welcoming me to atlanta i'm from the dmv so very much feel welcome
03:23thank y'all so much um so when i think of activism when i think of kind of old school activism we think
03:30about rallies we think about marching we think about canvassing i think the good thing that has
03:36come out of this pause that we have experienced with the pandemic is there there's no one way to
03:40do activism anymore right i define activism as using your platform to spread awareness about a cause that
03:47you are passionate about right so we've seen people doing tick tock dances sharing uh awareness about a
03:54topic that's important to them we've seen them doing cooking tutorials we've seen them showing up in the
03:59streets um so in 2022 activism looks like whatever you want to do and wherever you want to use your
04:06voice and platform to be able to raise awareness about a cause that's important to you
04:13yes to add on to what jamesa was saying um i feel like it's important to know that activism doesn't
04:18only entail politics like the social economic and environmental aspects are just as important so
04:26really do what feels right to you um a lot of people are social media people you know we it's 2022
04:31that makes sense me personally i prefer to do like community activities but i love you know the social
04:38media activists if that's what works for you then i support it you know we all pretty much working for
04:43the same cause so you know speaking of social media that actually brings me right into
04:48my next question i think during starting in 2012 with the killing of trayvon martin and then after
04:56that with mike brown in 2020 in 2014 we've definitely seen a lot of social media take take part in the
05:03way the black lives matter movement has gone so i wonder for both of you what was the point that you
05:08all realized that social media was a good tool for activism um especially in this day and age yeah i have
05:14a story um so i graduated from the delaware state university in 2013 i knew i wasn't going to get
05:21no um del state love y'all clap for the hbcu dang i told y'all i'm not from here
05:33um but the year that i graduated i actually um it was right after trayvon martin was killed um and i was
05:40interning on capitol hill um for the senator of delaware i was one of two black interns and there
05:46were three black women total in the office and so during the zimmerman trials i remember going back
05:53and forth with one of the white male interns just about how i was feeling about trayvon martin how i was
06:00feeling about george zimmerman and i'll never forget the day that the jury came back with the not guilty
06:06verdict this white male intern found me on facebook and sent me a message and it said he was found
06:13not guilty and first press much second i just felt so much anger and so for me it wasn't even about
06:24the power of social media for others when i went on twitter and facebook and instagram and saw hashtag
06:30black labs matter it felt like the whole world was basically wrapping their arms around me who was
06:35experiencing you know white supremacy at work and so for me it really wasn't so much the rallying cry
06:43for everyone it was the protection and uh me feeling like i was seen and my feelings mattered um during
06:51that time when i was being targeted um at a in a work setting um i feel like me personally like growing up
07:02during the whole like social media time and just the um generation i would say definitely the black
07:10lives matter hashtag is when i first realized like wow we really do have strength in numbers like you could
07:14post the hashtag and you're viral the next day but what really uh touched me was in 2020 when the
07:21george floyd protests were going on and people were like laying down like all over the country
07:26all over the world like in solitude for that man and that was really powerful because to stop like
07:32traffic on the highway just to show like your solidarity for that movement it was really powerful
07:38and i'm like if we can do that we can really do anything so you know i find that i find both of
07:43your answers to be so interesting because i also i'm not an activist but i think about myself as a reporter
07:48and how social media and activism shaped the way that i choose to report in centering black people
07:54black women especially when we're talking about how we choose to trust the police narrative and how
07:59we choose to trust just any narrative that the press puts out because i definitely remember during the
08:05george floyd movement the the i don't even think it was um i think i would call it distrust that i saw
08:12from black people when it came to the press and so i think that's why it's so good to watch how social media is
08:17doing um in all honesty sometimes just to see just to check what black people are thinking about
08:21certain events especially when it comes to events that center activism like the george floyd movement
08:25and like um abortion rights and things like that i checked the shade room comments to see what people
08:30are thinking what people are saying because that's where you'll get a good sense of what black folks
08:33are thinking that does not bring me to my next question but my next question is for mariah mariah you've
08:40been doing this since you were 17 years old um i wonder how that shaped your perspective starting so young
08:46being doing the work that you've chosen to do um i love the work that i do i get really excited
08:52talking about it just like helping women and victims of sexual assault but what i've learned from
08:58starting my activism journey so young is that a student teacher relationship can come in any age
09:05parent like just because i meet a woman that's 37 or 29 doesn't mean that she can't learn something
09:10from me and i shouldn't assume that she's aware of the resources that are available to her you know like
09:15certain health facts pertaining to her body like we can all learn from each other so that's a very
09:20important thing that i've learned i've also learned that like janisa was kind of tapping into earlier
09:26there are multiple different forms of activism like do what really aligns with you and you don't have
09:32to try to like please other people because activism is like anything you know like a career
09:36choice like just because somebody's doing a hunger strike if you don't if you don't want to go hungry and you
09:40want to do that find another way to you know like show your support for the movement so that's what
09:46i've learned thank you mariah and now jamesa you're the creator of planned parenthood's black
09:51organizing program a forbes 30 under 30 recipient and as you said earlier hello her i'm gonna need
10:00y'all to clap again soon because she's also a proud hbcu graduate but you're on the front lines of outreach in
10:07our community so can you talk a little bit about what that work really entails versus what people
10:12might think that work entails yeah so when i tell people that i work at planned parenthood
10:18i usually get two responses one people are like what's that or two people automatically assume that
10:23i work in a health center and i don't i actually work at our national office and as kenya said i created
10:29our black organizing program and it's my job to direct the overall vision and strategy for how we
10:35engage with black communities at planned parenthood so if you've ever been a planned parenthood patient
10:41if you are a supporter if you have shared your story i'm essentially sharing information nationwide on
10:49how folks can be culturally relevant and intentional without being tokenizing and how they are communicating
10:55with you i get to work with amazing students like mariah we have hbcu chapters across the nation
11:03uh we were just at some homecomings last week um i also uh get to participate with black owned
11:10businesses and black brands through our signature program called the shop chats where we partner with
11:16black owned businesses to host community conversations just like this about topics in sexual and reproductive
11:21health care because we know that when people make decisions about our bodies that black women and black
11:26people usually face the brunt of that and so i love my job i love the work that i do and i'm so
11:32excited to be able to create a vision for how an organization such as planned parenthood actually
11:38shows up in an intentional way thank you and you know what that brings me into a question i have for
11:43the both of you um like you said when it comes to these health issues black black people face the brunt
11:50of all of that and i think about a story that i wrote at capital b was about how 65 percent of
11:56abortion sought out in 2019 were made up of black women um one thing that i want to ask the both of
12:02you is i mean how does that show up in both of y'all's work i know y'all are both affiliated with
12:06planned parenthood but i mean just given that you you were at just y'all were both just at homecomings
12:10you're out in the streets what are people saying what are people thinking specifically black women
12:14and black femmes and black folks who can be pregnant and then how does outreach play a role in how all of this can go
12:21um so according to the cdc in 2019 so according to their website 38.4 percent of all of the abortions
12:32done were actually black women um and what i want to say there is that sharing data without content
12:37is extremely dangerous right when we fail to address and investigate the underlying reasons of why a
12:44certain community has higher rates of unintended pregnancy or abortion we're doing a huge disservice
12:49right abortion cannot be separated from other social justice issues when we think about poverty
12:55when we're thinking about food insecurity when we're thinking about racism as a public health crisis
13:00when we're thinking about food deserts all of these things come into play when someone is making a
13:07decision about themselves and so when we share statistics without sharing the context we're actually
13:13contributing to abortion stigma and i want to be very clear that black women black people
13:20should have the autonomy to be able to make whatever decision they want for themselves we have the
13:26right that's right we have the right to be able to decide when where and if we want to become parents
13:34and we want to make sure if we want to raise kids in a certain environment we have that right and so i
13:42want to be very very unapologetic about that because when we're talking about abortion as it relates to
13:47particularly black people there usually is a lot of stigma and trauma and shame that comes along with
13:52that decision i want us to remember that people are making decisions for their themselves um and we need
13:58to respect that i agree um i feel like uh people who are making the laws about our bodies they don't take
14:08into account that oh these people are not just seeking out abortions like we're not doing this
14:12for fun like it's all right like jamesa was saying and things happen like you never know what circumstances
14:19occur for that person to want to take that route or to just consider having an abortion so
14:26i can't remember it to be honest what are we saying but yeah what are you seeing i know because you're at
14:32clark um i know schools is especially a place where people are nervous about abortion access so
14:38yeah what have you seen over at clark in the auc what are folks telling you really we're just worried
14:43about our rights like it would be nice to know that if i did need an abortion or if i wanted to take
14:48that route i would have that option but the fact that they're trying to take that away from us is scary
14:53like we are in college you know things happen so people are scared that's what i was saying
14:59and i know a lot of the work is really heavy work especially in atlanta so much is happening with
15:05health we've you know abortion laws are changing it's being challenged in court we just lost atlanta
15:11medical center um there's a lot happening so the work can be heavy and i think one thing that gen z
15:17has challenged us to do is really prioritize our self-care when it comes to this so i wonder for
15:23both of you when it comes to doing this work what are some indicators that you need to take a step back
15:30me personally i stop answering the phone and i just start stress eating so i like to just regroup
15:38like reclaim my energy like okay i'm giving away too much of myself um i don't know if y'all have
15:43ever heard of a sanctuary plan but it's a pamphlet that you can make basically you state like what
15:49triggers you or how you how your body gives you signs that you're feeling like trigger overwhelm you
15:54know like your stomach starts hurting your hands start sweating just all these different signs and then
15:59you can like list things that'll help you so whether it's journaling yoga you know dancing
16:05having a snack whatever calms you and centers you and then you can list people who will be great to
16:10contact in these moments of need um keep in mind that people that you want to contact it might not
16:16be the person closest to you like it might not be your mom if your mom's the type of person who freaks
16:19out when you freak out don't write her name down you know like contact somebody that can actually like
16:24calm you they know how to help you when you're in distress um that'll really help you and then
16:28at the end write at least like three affirmations that um you can use to remind yourself like i know
16:34who i am i'm that girl like period i'm not my current situation and everything will be okay
16:42yes so for me so i'm not gen z i'm a millennial we're the millennials oh it's more of us than i thought
16:48but i will say gen z y'all got the self-care on lock so i am very aware of how y'all are showing up
16:56i think for me i just have to call in black some days um i distinctly remember the summer of defiance
17:02when we were dealing with the murders of amal aubrey george floyd beonna taylor um i just had like this
17:08tingling in my body and i had to call off work i said i need a mental health day um because for me if i'm
17:16not showing up as my best self then i can't do my best work um and it is sometimes a struggle for me
17:23because i am directing this program um but then you know i have a team that i can lean on um and
17:32i have to be intentional about taking care of myself first what that means sometimes it's calling in
17:37black from work that means turning off the news um that means not reading the shade room comments
17:43sometimes so for me when i feel like i'm starting to like lose steam and when i feel kind of like
17:51these overall tinglings in my body then i know it's time for me to step back and regroup i definitely
17:56think one thing that's helped me in the self-care is my job god bless capital b we have unlimited pto
18:03and so yeah that is it that exists y'all unlimited unlimited time off exists it's great so um i mean
18:11granted i'm not just like blocking off like three weeks at a time just because i can like
18:15i have work to do but um i definitely think it's important to plan your pto if you have a certain
18:20amount of days definitely plan it out like think about the trips you're gonna take think about the
18:25time you want to take think about the things you want to do and within the year and just do it and then
18:29also a thing that helps me i know we're in a room full of black folks i watch friends when i'm like
18:34a little stressed out see i knew there i knew black people like friends
18:41so that's one thing that helps me watching some old shows where i know exactly what's going to happen
18:45when it's going to happen those are great too um mariah i definitely want to ask you as the young
18:51one on on stage what are what are you most proud of when it when it comes to your generation and what
18:57you've seen in how they choose to approach activism great question uh what i'm the most proud of with
19:05my generation so i'm going to speak like specifically on my community um i'm really proud of planned
19:10parenthood generation action at cau we love black elena um we just i get to be i'm sorry i get to be
19:19united with so many young women who are uh powerful i'm sorry who are who are um passionate about the
19:30work that we do and just to like experience you know like women taking the time out of their school
19:36day um we already have so much work to do and so much pressure as a student to actually like you know
19:41go to uh freshman dorms and fill up like um the dispensers in the bathrooms with like free condoms uh
19:48free menstrual cycle products just those type of things taking making sure that people are taken
19:54care of um if they don't have those resources also i am an intern for me too international
20:00and the fact that my friends would just take time out of their day to come and listen to like a two
20:04hour presentation on how um sexual violence in the u.s is rooted from the intersectionality of racism
20:10capitalism it's a lot but i'm very proud of them and i just feel like we have so much work to do
20:20and i'm ready is there anything you want to see oh y'all go ahead and clap i'm sorry
20:28is there anything from your generation you'd like to see more of when it comes to activism
20:32um i would like to see more male students like actually vocalize their support for black women
20:41in the movement of the work that planned parenthood does and the work that we do at cau it would be
20:46nice to have like you know different genders um different schools like morehouse actually be in
20:53unison with us there are some i'm not gonna knock the ones i do shout out to y'all but um yeah more of
20:59that and for jamesa i wonder what are some of the easy ways that people get involved can get involved
21:04with the work that you do yeah so you can always visit um bands off.org or you can text the word
21:12access to 22422 you can write the local editor of your favorite magazine or um online publication
21:23have conversations let's start normalizing conversations about sexual and reproductive
21:28health care um and abortion right like let's remove the stigma and shame by having conversations
21:35with our friends and family if you had an abortion and you want to share your story you can actually
21:41go online on social media on your favorite platform share your story and actually hashtag
21:47whatever the reason because we know that it doesn't matter what the reason is it's none of our
21:52business right and so to remove that same shame and stigma and we also know that there's power in
21:58storytelling and so i really encourage you if you have had an abortion to share on social media if
22:04you're comfortable and use the hashtag whatever the reason well thank you both so much um i think
22:11in atlanta you know we've lost a lot recently the atlanta medical center we also just lost takeoff and
22:17one of the things that takeoff said was that he wanted his flowers while he was here and so i think
22:22one thing that we don't do enough of is give people their flowers while they're here and you know
22:28performative activism is still certainly alive and well and but there's been tons of things that have
22:33happened like there's been there's real money being poured into hbcus there are people who are on the
22:37ground doing the work and as a result of that we're have we have a better world so one thing i'd like to
22:43challenge the audience to do i'm gonna put y'all on the spot here um who can stand up and share
22:48something that they were glad to see change as a result of people using their voices our resources
22:54or buying power as a community to demand progress something big something small and the mic is right
22:59over here for anybody who would like to stand and say something yeah come on up
23:13hello everyone hi i'm jasmine i graduated from the i love jackson state university so one thing that i
23:24can say that i'm proud of is our coach dion sanders standing up as a um football hall of fame uh player
23:33and just vocalizing what's going on in black communities like jackson mississippi as well as hbcus
23:40i love that thank you so much
24:03hey how are you i'm good um shout out to jackson state yeah
24:07um this is kind of like i guess uh in the black community this is more of a i guess a personal
24:14story but it's like i still feel like it's like important but i am a proud graduate of georgia state
24:19university that's what i'm talking about okay okay um so if any of you guys i don't know when you guys
24:24graduated but i graduated in 2018 and my graduation was completely destroyed and ruined um due to rain
24:32and they said it was yeah it was it was awful so like basically none of us was able to walk
24:36none of us our names were called or anything they just said congratulations you graduated
24:40and left and georgia state didn't do nothing about it they basically it was this big thing and i made
24:45i'm a talk show host by the way so i made a video and i basically said hey this is wrong i'm
24:51going to do something about it two days later i was on the news did not expect that news people calling
24:56me um i started a petition and in like three days i got over 11 000 signatures and i had george state
25:03actually calling me saying can we talk and i'm like oh you want to talk to me i'm like all right
25:08cool so um basically i demanded a new graduation for us and in 10 days we got a brand new graduation
25:19i say that just to say like georgia state is literally one of the biggest schools
25:24in the country right now and the fact that me just one of the people out of like 50 but at the
25:30time it was 52 000 students was able to make a change like that it just shows that your voice
25:34is actually very powerful more powerful than you actually think and it really only takes one person
25:40so i love that go girl thank you go ahead and then we're going to switch to audience questions after
25:46this oh go ahead so you can you you're great to transition us into yes hello my name is jay
25:53but i'm from atlanta georgia born and bred and i'm also a senior finance major at georgia state
25:58university um i think something a small change or it's relatively big amongst us in the black
26:04community that we're now embracing therapy more you know i know a lot of i even grew up on what
26:10happens in the house stays in the house and that's there's a lot of trauma that comes with that but now
26:15being able to talk to a therapist and pour out how you feel is very new to me and i know it's probably
26:21new to a lot of people and to our people so i'm glad that um just talking about therapy on twitter
26:26has also um caused people to just go to therapy and is i heard it's helping i know it's helping me
26:32now i know it's helping everybody else and then my question for you ladies are i know with the
26:38overturning of roe versus wade and i know you all are directing planned parenthood for for collegians and
26:44and just for the black community or the young black community i wanted to know what what was your
26:49response especially you as a director and maybe you on a collegiate level how are you helping like
26:55you know ladies i guess get get to other states you know on a worldwide perspective i know other
26:59companies have now responded by paying for the abortion paying for the trial i wonder have you
27:05created like a fund or any type of like you know fundraiser any type of the sort to help ladies all
27:11around the country especially as black people we are the most impoverished impoverished or we just
27:16don't have as much so i just want to know what was you all's response yeah um first and foremost i
27:22was not surprised that the supreme court responded that way it's not a surprise um so planned parenthood
27:28is actually working with um local abortion funds um if you don't know you can google abortionfinder.org
27:37that is a tool to be able to help you to find the tools um the care that you need um i know that like
27:43you said a lot of uh brand corporations and other orgs are actually providing funding but for us the
27:49biggest piece is abortionfinder.org um which is where you can find all of the information all of the
27:54resources that you need to get the care that you need that's great thank you does anyone else have a
28:01question oh go ahead
28:08okay so
28:13i will say that i'm glad to see that there are young generations you know women like you all that are
28:24um
28:33so i have multiple generations in my household but i wonder because i'm glad i brought my daughter here
28:39you know i can also have a little bit more excitement to see things well and actually doing things
28:45what advice would you give to those of us in the older generation in terms of being able to
28:53communicate and understand better like you all are very rich and there are now those type of you
29:02know where i'm kind of like well don't do that let's try this and i love to say and i told my son
29:08i want to be able to be more embracing to the younger generations and just understand
29:38how i can help as an older person you know to just be more abrasive to you know your goals your
29:45visions and understanding better and being able to communicate with the younger generations more
29:50or better yeah that really resonated with me because i have an 18 month old um and i often think about
29:57the future and what our conversations will look like whenever he learns how to talk um so for me
30:04i think that the unfortunate disconnect between older generations and younger is that we don't
30:12think that we can learn anything from each other right so like younger people are like y'all did it
30:18one way that's not how you do it anyway uh you know and then older generations are like well we were fine
30:24we kind of did it we don't think that y'all have anything to to teach us i think erasing that barrier is
30:29the first step and sharing stories like if your son is telling you a story and you know he's just
30:36starting to kind of scratch the surface you sharing a story similar right there is so much power in
30:42storytelling and sharing our experiences because they do reduce stigma and they break those barriers
30:46and so i think first realizing that you both can learn from each other and also doing more storytelling
30:53my mom well i don't want to hear many of her stories because she goes a little too in depth um but it's
31:01helpful for me to know that some of the things that i have experienced are things that she also experienced
31:07and so to hear that from her really does create a bond um where you do feel comfortable talking and
31:13also supporting i think that's the best approach to take like showing your support by being like
31:20listening to his ideas although you say you feel like he might not have a plan he probably doesn't
31:24have a plan but he has ideas like i'm sure everybody in this room has had a plan for something
31:29and it does not work out at all so we all just have to like go with the flow regroup re re plot out
31:36what we're gonna do so i would say show your support and for sure share your wisdom like
31:42i vicariously learned through so many people like just hearing what other people have been through it's
31:47like okay they did this they took this approach and this is how that turned out for them that might
31:51i might not have the same like you know outcome but it it can still like affect the plan of action
31:56that i decide to take so yeah well you all i really appreciate y'all being here and listening to all of
32:03us i think that is all we have for today so thank y'all so much
Comments