Read on Twitter
It’s @ReverendWarnock & @ossoff 1st day as U.S. senators for Georgia, giving Democrats control of the upper chamber.
I never want to hear about the South being a lost cause again because Black voters, especially Black women did this.
https://twitter.com/reckonsouth/status/1352010526658863105?s=20
I never want to hear about the South being a lost cause again because Black voters, especially Black women did this.
https://twitter.com/reckonsouth/status/1352010526658863105?s=20
Over the past several weeks, I’ve talked to 11 Black gamechangers under 30 about how they see (and are building) the future of the South & what they're expecting from President @JoeBiden's administration for @reckonsouth's #YoungSouthernBlack series. Here's what they have to say:
@UofAlabama grad student @AlexusMCumbie said student loans are college students' main concern. It should be Biden's, too. She hopes people learn from Black women.
"I come from a generation recognizing that we can’t leave folks in the hood behind." https://reckonsouth.com/alexus-cumbie-we-cant-leave-anyone-behind/
"I come from a generation recognizing that we can’t leave folks in the hood behind." https://reckonsouth.com/alexus-cumbie-we-cant-leave-anyone-behind/
@AuburnU grad student @fitz_dwebb wants to be Georgia's 1st nonbinary U.S. senator. They had a lot of ideas about how to make the South more LGBTQ+ inclusive.
"We can disagree about how you’re taxed, but we cannot disagree about someone’s human rights." https://reckonsouth.com/fitz-webb-building-a-more-lgbtq-inclusive-south/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=reckonalabama_sf
"We can disagree about how you’re taxed, but we cannot disagree about someone’s human rights." https://reckonsouth.com/fitz-webb-building-a-more-lgbtq-inclusive-south/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=reckonalabama_sf
Jamie Lowe, 20 yr old legal mediator & city council candidate, wants to live in a South where Black stereotypes don't stick to him.
"It would seem to me that people put Black people in boxes way quicker than they would put other individuals in boxes." https://reckonsouth.com/jamie-lowe-the-consequences-of-stereotypes/
"It would seem to me that people put Black people in boxes way quicker than they would put other individuals in boxes." https://reckonsouth.com/jamie-lowe-the-consequences-of-stereotypes/
@KatFiles 'story shows how racism in arts negatively affects Black southern creatives. The Birmingham native, who's a professional dancer in New York, is reversing the trend by investing her time teaching today's Black creatives through her nonprofit the F.I.L.E.S. Arts Project
“They can look at themselves in the mirror & say, ‘I’m from Birmingham, Alabama. I know I am talented and gifted. I’m humble with it, but I’m going to bust down those doors and be in those rooms that I know I deserve to be in and worked hard to be in." https://reckonsouth.com/kat-files-stop-sleeping-on-black-southern-talent/
@davidhparker & @devintyfranklin said a Black, queer renaissance is happening down South, but y'all are sleeping on it.
https://reckonsouth.com/david-and-devin-creating-a-southern-black-queer-renaissance/
https://reckonsouth.com/david-and-devin-creating-a-southern-black-queer-renaissance/
Black women shouldn't be doing all the work. Here's @AmberLScales' advice on how to support the Black Southern women who puts boots on the ground and fought off the racist roots of runoff elections this past year: hire & listen to them. https://reckonsouth.com/amber-scales-help-black-women-create-a-new-south/
Mimi Cole, a Virginia native who's studying to be a therapist, talks about how the South can lead the nation in racial healing - which can't happen without acknowledgment of harm. She said this December, but her message is timely.
https://reckonsouth.com/mimi-cole-the-souths-lovely-becoming-through-healing/
https://reckonsouth.com/mimi-cole-the-souths-lovely-becoming-through-healing/
Mississippian @noah10harris ,1st Black man to be elected Harvard University's student body president, listed multiple ways his home state could retain its youth population: 1. uproot racist policies 2. Improve healthcare 3. Improve education https://reckonsouth.com/noah-harris-how-to-give-people-a-reason-to-stay-in-mississippi/
Gabrielle Perry ( @NotGeauxGabby ), a Louisiana native who created a scholarship for formerly incarcerated women, said the South's legacy in starting Black liberation movements makes it the perfect place to future push criminal justice reform. https://reckonsouth.com/gabrielle-perry-progressing-criminal-justice-reform-for-black-women/
For Rev. James Woodall ( @iMajorWish), @Georgia_NAACP's youngest director, this election may be over. Trump may be gone. But the white supremacy he amplified still remains. So, Young, Southern activists of color will continue to rally against issues oppressing their communities.
Those issues include police brutality, environmental racism, etc. “The record is clear, and let the record reflect, that young people have always been at the forefront of the movement for Black lives,” Woodall said. https://reckonsouth.com/rev-james-woodall-georgia-isnt-blue-its-black/
These aren't the only young Black Southerners we should be paying attention to. There were at least 15-20 more people who were suggest to me or contacted me. Sometimes I wonder if this would be a good podcast series....what say you?
So, let it be known that activism has always been in the blood of Black and brown activists. They turn the tide of their South -- as well as the nation.
