By: Michael Reel
Changing Our Narrative
For our second installment of the Millennial Moment Panel, presented by Reel Urban News, our host and journalist Jasmine Gates helms a wide-ranging conversation with two exceptional millennial guests, policy expert Shianne Winston and social worker Cory Nash.
To begin the Millennial Moment, Gates looks back at the tragic death of NBA great Kobe Bryant in early 2020, the coronavirus global pandemic, and the death of George Floyd, killed when a white police officer drove his knee into Floyd’s neck as camera phones captured the harrowing event.
To expand the examination of the pandemic, Gates asked the panel, “How has the current climate affected you and shifted some of the ways you’ve been moving?”
“A level of seriousness has been forced onto me – everything is a lot more time-sensitive,” said Nash. “Human contact is not the same. The collective energy has shifted and me working from home is minor compared to when I go out in public and feel everyone’s tension.”
For Shianne Winston, policy expert and founder of New Black Era, the onset of coronavirus proved to be a springboard into community engagement and action. “For me, it was really opposite from everyone else. I felt like it was a time when I could no longer be silent. It was a time when I had to over-extend my resources I had available. It was a time when I had to share and get information to communities that are usually looked over. For me it was like, ‘Alright Shianne, now more than ever, you have to step up and do what you are prepared to do.”
Gates, who has traveled the globe and worked in underserved communities across the nation, pointed out that the panel’s response to COVID-19 was relevant locally and in communities everywhere.
“I have friends that I speak with in New York and I have friends that I speak with in Africa and they talk about some of the same disparities they are facing,” Gates explained. “It’s important that this conversation is not only existing here. We need to make sure we’re creating the change that is effective throughout.”
The second installment of the Millennial Moment was filmed as the world witnessed the rash of on-camera killings of black men and women, largely at the hands of white law enforcement, and the subsequent social unrest that followed.
Gates delved into the steps needed to make and influence public policy. “One thing I feel like change can come through is legislation and policy. How do you think we can push the envelope on that?”
“The biggest way to push the envelope is to build people power,” said Ms. Winston, the panel’s policy expert. “You have to create one-on-one relationships with people who are experiencing the same thing as you are and if you’re not experiencing the same thing but you have a platform that can push the work or policy, then that’s how you do it.”
Ms. Winston went a step further and spoke directly to minority communities on policy creation. “In order for us to really push policy in low income or African American and Latino communities, we have to remove this sense of judgment and our lack of trust we have within each other.”
As the policy discussion gained momentum, Gates asked, “Why haven’t we been able to come together – the community and policymakers?”
Nash, a licensed clinical social worker and seasoned community activist, framed his answer around the lack of interaction within our communities.
“Lack of communication – a lot of people don’t even know where policy gets made,” explained Nash. “I would encourage the community to organize ways for us to take tips to our state capital like Sacramento and visit these chambers and practice lobbying –even educate ourselves on what lobbying is. You don’t have have to be of a special qualification to go and knock on a door and say, ‘Hey, I think this is a good idea. Let’s extend foster care from age 18 to age 21 because there are not a lot of services.’ I was a part of that lobbying push.”
In the closing moments, Ms. Gates reminded us of the importance of this time in our history and that change requires all of our participation. “There is no abolition without re-imagination.”
Special thanks to Roland Jackson with Planet Health Compton for allowing The Millennial Moment Panel to film in your location.
