June 27, 2020

Tiana Day, 17, of San Ramon, Calif., led a march across the Golden Gate Bridge.John G Mabanglo/EPA, via Shutterstock

By Jessica Bennett

“As teens, we feel like we cannot make a difference in this world, but we must.”

— Zee Thomas, 15

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Two days after George Floyd was killed by the police in Minneapolis, Zee Thomas, 15, posted a tweet: “If my mom says yes I’m leading a Nashville protest.”

Thomas had never been to a protest, let alone organized one. And yet, five days later, with the help of five other teenagers, she was leading a march through her city, some 10,000 strong.

“We didn’t have a podium or anything, we were standing on water coolers to speak,” Thomas said. “I’m an introvert, and when I got up there I was like, ‘Oh my God, what am I doing?’ But I kept going.”

Thomas and her co-organizers didn’t know it at the time, but in cities across the country, other young women were doing something similar.

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In San Ramon, Calif., Tiana Day, 17, led a Black Lives Matter protest across the Golden Gate Bridge, after responding to a request for help on Instagram from another young woman, Mimi Zoila, 19. Day thought “something like 50 people would show up.” There were thousands, stretching for miles.

In Chicago, Shayla Turner, 18, spent part of her high school graduation week campaigning to remove police from inside Chicago’s public schools. She has been on the front lines of the city’s protests and cleanup efforts.

And from her bedroom in St. Louis, where she lives with her parents while on break from college, Brianna Chandler, 19, was using social media to organize a teach-in for local high school and college students to learn about racial justice.

“I think that educating people is essential to movement building,” Chandler said.

We spoke with Thomas, Day, Turner and Chandler about racial justice, youth activism and what they hope for the future, by Zoom from their homes.

Thomas with her co-organizers in Nashville. From left (top row): Thomas, Nya Collins, Emma Rose Smith, Mikayla Smith. Bottom: Kennedy Green, left, and Jade Fuller.Yasmine Malone for The New York Times

Zee and Tiana, neither of you had ever led a protest before. What propelled you?

Zee, 15: It’s crazy. I’ve never been to a protest before — like, ever. I got inspired by what people were doing all across America, but there was no protest in Nashville at the time. I was like, why isn’t Tennessee doing anything? Why are they silent?

So I was like, enough is enough. We’re going to do something.

I was nervous to talk to my mom at first. I said, “Mom, if I do this, would you be OK with it?” She didn’t question me, which was really surprising. She was like, “I’m going to be behind you every step of the way.” And that’s what really set it off.

Tiana, 17: For me, I was never really an activist before. But this movement lit a fire in me. I live in San Ramon, a suburban town in California, and I’ve grown up around people who didn’t look like me my whole life. And I’ve been constantly trying to fit in. I would stay out of the sun so I wouldn’t tan. I would straighten my hair every day. There’s so many things that I did to try to suppress who I was and what my culture was. I just never felt like myself.

But I have always had this, like, boiling thing, this boiling passion in my body to want to make a change in the world. I just never knew what it was. So when Mimi, my co-organizer, commented on an Instagram post about needing a leader for a protest, I DM-ed her. We organized the entire thing in 18 hours, pushing out a single flyer.

We bought three cases of water because we thought it was enough. It was, like, four miles straight of people who were there to support the movement, and honestly, most of them weren’t even Black. They were allies. It was so beautiful.

I think I found myself through this movement.

Tiana Day, 17, at a Juneteenth celebration in Oakland, Calif.James Tensuan for The New York Times

You are each leading major actions with thousands of people, typically organizing from the bedrooms where you live with your parents. How have your families responded?

Shayla, 18: My mom actually found out I was protesting through the newspaper. She was in Walgreens and did a double take because I was on the cover of the The Chicago Tribune. She called me, and I was so scared, because I had lied to her and said that I was going out with my friends that day.

She doesn’t really think it’s safe, and she doesn’t want me out there. But at the end of the day, I’m going to be out there and it’s better for me to tell her where I am. It actually brought us closer.

Shayla Turner, 18, in Chicago.Carlos Ortiz for The New York Times

Brianna, you grew up in St. Louis, where you said that your parents put books about Black liberation in your hands as soon as you could read. Do you think that led to your activism as an adult?

Brianna, 19: My parents pushed me to become educated about Black history, in part because they worked really hard to put me in private schools. And they knew that going to a predominantly white institution would not teach me about my history.

When I have gone to marches in the past, my dad has always been there with me. But I’ve never really been what I consider to be “on the front lines.” Most of what I do is online. So when I realized that I wouldn’t be able to actually go anywhere to protest, due to Covid and safety concerns, I just kind of sat down and typed out how I was feeling.

I posted, and then I kept thinking and writing and posting and it grew from there. Just kind of what I call “consciousness- raising,” because I think that educating people is essential to movement building. There are a lot of different parts of a movement.

What’s something about your generation that people get wrong?

Brianna: That our anger is not valid, that we don’t have a reason to be angry, that we don’t have a reason to riot. You know, there is that super popular Malcolm X quote: “The most disrespected person in America is the Black woman.”

It’s the idea that Black women have to say things nicely, or they have to say things using standard English, or that they’re ignorant if they speak using African-American vernacular English. I think what the world gets wrong is that the anger of Black women isn’t valid — and it is. It’s more valid than I think any white person can comprehend.

Zee: I also want people to know that we’re not strong all the time. We’re allowed to be weak. We are teenagers, we’re young women, and we’re allowed to be emotional, especially when we see people of our skin color getting killed.

Brianna Chandler, 19, in Olivette, Mo.Whitney Curtis for The New York Times

What gives you hope?

Tiana: How many people are sticking up and starting protests.

Brianna: Seeing all of the people who are going beyond social media to educate themselves — donating, reading books, and having conversations with their friends and family.

Shayla: Chicago youth give me hope. Everyone in my close friend group is involved within this movement, and many others. That’s kind of normal for kids here, because everyone cares.

Zee: After the protest, I really couldn’t sleep at all. I was on Twitter, as usual. And there was this one tweet from a mother. And I remember it so clearly, because I started crying. And she just said, “I’m happy that my daughter will grow up in a world that these young girls will change.”

And like, that’s a moment where I felt really powerful, because my main goal, as a person, and as an upcoming activist, is to make sure that people know that things will change. Eventually.

What else is happening

Here are three articles from The Times you may have missed.

Unilever is removing the words “whitening” and “lightening” from its packaging for its Fair & Lovely brand.Amit Dave/Reuters

“Colorism is a form of racism.” Unilever and Johnson & Johnson in the last few days have adjusted or dropped completely their skin lightening products sold in Asia, Africa and the Middle East that many argue have long perpetuated racist beauty standards. [Read the story]
“Destroy the male sex.” Valerie Solanas, a radical feminist author, made daring arguments in her book “SCUM Manifesto” for a world without men. But her legacy as a writer and thinker was overshadowed by one violent act: shooting the artist Andy Warhol. [Read the story]
“What he has to do is get a very, very strong V.P.” In a poll conducted by The New York Times and Siena College, a large majority of registered voters surveyed said race should not be a factor in Joe Biden’s vice president decision. [Read the story]

This edition of In Her Words was written by Jessica Bennett and edited by Anya Strzemien, with photo editing by Sandra Stevenson and production by Sharon Attia. Together, they are the authors of This Is 18: Girls’ Lives Through Girls’ Eyes (Abrams).

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