Explore how the social construct of race and racial oppression operates at multiple levels with a rotating focus on different social systems. Connect with Austin-area justice movement organizers and everyday people with relevant lived experience to lay out historical context, current affairs, and creative possibilities for a liberated future.
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Soyinka Rahim:I got a love song. I got a hit song. In this world, you only need one song. To live your life like you you visualize it for a land purpose. I take it nothing.
Soyinka Rahim:Never giving up on enough tip. And let your light shine like the sunshine. A celebration, no separation. You got a love song, I got a love song. I'm getting a love song.
Stacie Freasier:Hey, y'all. This is Stacie Freasier, pronouns shethey. I really appreciate you tuning in to K00P91.7 FM. Also streaming online. So if you're joining us on k00p.org, I see you too and appreciate it.
Stacie Freasier:You're listening to Racism on the Levels, a monthly show in the Austin Cooperative Radio Hour Collective that explores how the human constructed tricky, tricky beast called racism operates at the internal, interpersonal, cultural, institutional, and systemic levels with a focus on creative possibilities for a liberated future. I am a justice movement weaver, a Kingian non violence conflict reconciliation trainer, racial justice facilitator and mother to Rumi. The show's purpose is to hold space for story sharing and information gathering. And, I really like to connect organically through the network, right, to with other Austin area movement workers and justice seekers and those who center liberation. And that takes many forms.
Stacie Freasier:Right? So, I wanna give a quick shout out to Deepa Iyer for framing the roles within, a social change map. So shout out to the healers, the guides, the storytellers, the experimenters, the frontline responders, the visionaries, builders, caregivers, and or disruptors of the world. So, the views expressed here are not necessarily those of the Coop Board of Directors, staff, volunteers, or underwriters. We are broadcasting and recorded on stolen, unceded land, and indigenous people have faced inconceivable losses and attempted erasure due to violent settler colonialism.
Stacie Freasier:So I invite you to join me in active reparation efforts, get to know your local indigenous community members, and support them in their efforts. I am sitting across from Brianna Jenkins who I'm going to ask to introduce yourself, including your pronouns and, your Austin origin story and what you're into.
Briona Jenkins:Sure. Hello. My name is Brianna Jenkins. Everyone calls me Brie. My pronouns are sheher, 34, originally from Hamden, Connecticut, which is in southern Connecticut right outside New Haven.
Briona Jenkins:I moved to Austin in 2016 when I was 26 years old, kind of on a dare. My high school best friend was living here and I came to visit. He's like, you'll never you'll never live anywhere outside Connecticut. And I was like, nope. I really like it here.
Briona Jenkins:He goes, okay. And 6 months later, I moved here. I didn't have a job until a week before I left. Like, I had found an apartment. I had worked in food service for most of my life and I was like, I'll figure it out.
Briona Jenkins:You know, it's college educated. World world was my oyster. So I moved here when I was 26. But, you know, I come from a very big social activist, politically engaged family and I was really lucky and I'm still really lucky to come from a family that is very religious. So we have a lot of faith and beliefs but also believed in the world of activism and, you know, being connected and and thinking outside of our box and not pigeonholing ourselves into just what the Bible says, which I am really grateful to have a family that is so open minded.
Briona Jenkins:Because when I came out as queer at 26 and my godparents are basically my parents. My mom passed when I was really young and my father and I don't actually have a relationship. So to come out to my godfather who's a pastor and his wife, and they're like, we love you. We hope you find someone who loves you as much we do. Like, there was no there there wasn't a beat that was mixed, a step, a misstep, I guess, I should say.
Briona Jenkins:So was really lucky to be able to grow up in a family that, you know, we were able to center ourselves. Like, we were taught very young to take up space, especially as young black girls to take up space, do what we felt was right even if we were standing alone and to not be afraid to stand up for those who had no one to stand up for them. And, you know, when my mom passed when I was 16, I really got to see what community meant. It wasn't just me and my dad. It was our neighbors, my friends and their family.
Briona Jenkins:Like, it was everyone truly rallied around us, and we come from a big family. My mom's 1 of 5. My dad's 1 of 3. My godfather's 1 of 6. My godmother's 1 of 4.
Briona Jenkins:So, like, I come from a lot of family and extended family. So to see my community just get bigger, I think, is what really drove me into going into community work full time. My background is in nonprofit work primarily. So went to college for sociology with a concentration in social work, graduated when I was 22, and just dove right into doing work in the community. Everything from working with adults and children with developmental disabilities to a school for children who have autism to then, like, my full first time full big girl job.
Briona Jenkins:I did affordable housing and working with folks experiencing homelessness and helping them to get housed. And then when I moved to Austin, that career path has just done a very wild 8 years. I've worked at Foundation Communities, OUT Youth, United Way, Austin Justice Coalition. I did some consulting in there and now I'm at a the I'm at the oldest I am at the oldest preschool in Austin, Main Spring Schools in South Austin, as their director of development. And I've had the honor of serving on 6 boards in the last 8 years and so doing a lot of community, like, activism.
Stacie Freasier:That's a lot of board service, babe.
Briona Jenkins:But it's I I can't say no. Like, I just and also, like, with my between my lived experience of being black and queer and a woman and also, like, my fundraising experience, which is what I do now full time fundraising and marketing and public speaking and all that. You know? I just I can't ever say no when someone asks me to do something. So that's been really fun.
Briona Jenkins:And and yeah. So I just, you know, I just I I just really believe that nonprofits and and activism and advocacy work and that there's the disruptors are what's gonna be what really save us. Like, there's the whole reason why these organizations exist because our government doesn't protect us in the way it needs to. And so the community is what's gonna be there for you, locally, specifically people in your community who know you, in the, you know, in the in your government, politicians and people you meet in your community who can have what that one on one FaceTime with. But also, like, from an activist space of, like, you've gotta find the people who are gonna ride with you when no one else does.
Briona Jenkins:So
Stacie Freasier:100%. Yeah. We're not doing this work to get invited to Bezos' yacht like, You wouldn't even wanna go. I do wouldn't either. But Timberland went yesterday.
Stacie Freasier:I don't know if you saw that. And, yeah. I would
Briona Jenkins:cost without Oprah. If Oprah called,
Soyinka Rahim:then that's
Stacie Freasier:that's what you
Briona Jenkins:call it.
Soyinka Rahim:I don't
Stacie Freasier:know if you follow Amanda Seals, but, she's like, on Juneteenth? Listen.
Briona Jenkins:Literally on Juneteenth. I can't.
Stacie Freasier:So that brings us to what I envisioned for today's conversation, which is, the intersection of blackness and queerness. We are in the season of pride. We are. I am a fellow queer identifying woman, and this is our season. It's also very heavy, heavy remembrance of Juneteenth, which happened on this soil in this state and joy and grief.
Stacie Freasier:Yeah. Like, simultaneously. So I I really wanted to give, space to talk about that convergence. Mhmm. And, this show, this station right now, I just learned listeners right before this that Brianna was on co op.
Briona Jenkins:Back in the day.
Stacie Freasier:Back in the day. But also bringing queerness to the airwaves here, which is something that we're looking to bring back up more. Right? And so when I I I've wanted to center a show about queerness and, being racism on the levels, we are always talk I'm always talking about, you know, anti black racism, in a major way. And so, you were suggested to come on and be the right person for that convergence.
Stacie Freasier:I'm honored. Yeah. So, I don't know if you want me to prompt you with some questions or if you wanna just go ahead and tell me what you think about that.
Briona Jenkins:So much comes to mind about the intersection of, first of all, of black and queerness and also grief and joy. And I mean, from an activism space to, like, I think a lot to, like, resilience is activism. Like, anytime you can anytime I see a marginalized person experiencing pure joy, I'm like, that is resilience. That is laughing in the face of oppression and systematic racism and all these systems that are designed to make us feel less than or smaller. Again, as a as a woman who grew up in the northeast and learning a lot about history, specifically from my family who was from the south.
Briona Jenkins:Like, my grandmothers were born in the forties, both of them.
Soyinka Rahim:Do you know where? What parts of the
Briona Jenkins:1 in Mississippi, 1 North North Carolina. And so my mom's mom passed 2 years ago and I lived with her for a time, which was like the greatest gift I ever could have gotten in my life. Rest in peace, Sally. And she was the literal best. The epitome of like a shady grandma too.
Briona Jenkins:Like, she just had no time and it was my favorite thing. That we talked a lot about her growing up and and of, you know, my dating history as a as an equal opportunity dater of who was dated men, women, all different races and ages. And, you know, my grandmother who raised 5 kids and was 16 years younger than my grandfather and learning about, you know, the stuff she gave up because it just didn't feel right to her. Like, she had a full scholarship to go play basketball, and she didn't do it. And I found that fascinating.
Briona Jenkins:She's like, I just don't wanna play anymore. And I'm like, okay. Like so I I laugh because it's just to again, just like another example for me growing up of, like, you get to choose what feels right and what doesn't and to know yourself. And, you know, I think about that, that that part of my life and, you know, talking about growing up of, like, everything from an outhouse to, like, how you, like, took a bath and, like, collecting water. And I was just just like I she's like you wouldn't live.
Briona Jenkins:I was like I would not survive now. Like, I've just gotten so used to the luxuries of life, running water. But yeah. So I mean, I all that to say is, like, I think deeply on Juneteenth, again, as a person who wasn't raised in the south but now lives there, of what that meant for my ancestors. And, you know, I have a shirt that says I'm my ancestors.
Briona Jenkins:Wow. This dream because I just I am very blessed and fortunate, and I've worked my booty off to get to where I am. And and I never wanna say lucky. Like, I have worked hard to get to where I am and nothing at all has ever been handed to me, and I think about that in my day to day life. But, yeah, I just I think about that that overlap of of we still see systematically how black people are oppressed, and then that brings up the conversation about reparations.
Briona Jenkins:And my friends and I have been joking because, like, I say I'm the proudest American only during the Olympics. Like, right now, like, I am gung ho for USA, but I always think about the James Baldwin quote of, like, you can love something and be very critical of it. And that's how I feel about the US in general, but also for me living in Austin, which I moved away for 6 months. I was trying to move away for good, but I've
Stacie Freasier:I moved away for 20 years.
Soyinka Rahim:Yeah. And and, you know, and it's
Briona Jenkins:it was interesting to move back. I moved back home to Connecticut for a lot of personal family reasons and then moved back for a friend of mine had a baby really early. So I was like, I moved back to kinda support her too. And, you know, privilege for sure to be able to, like, pick up and move and go across the country twice. But one of the reasons a lot of the reasons I was leaving Austin is because of everything that's happening politically of I, as a black queer woman living in a predominantly white city on stolen land where black people have been pushed out time and time again, where it's getting more and more expensive, and what that means for black and brown people.
Briona Jenkins:And having friends who are white or wealthy or what have you who love Austin. And don't get me wrong, I do too, but never really lift up the veil to see how Austin is not for everyone. And it is I think everyone kinda gets this, but you can do anything and be anything. I'm like, yeah, if you are wealthy. Yes.
Briona Jenkins:If you are able-bodied. Yes. If you have a car. Like, there's just so many things of nuance I have to pay attention to and remind my friends who are not in the same body and experience as me is, like, that is a very privileged way of looking at things. Let's unpack that more though because Austin can be great and you can also be critical of it.
Briona Jenkins:And, you know, I used to live listen to every single city council meeting because I am a politics nerd and it was really my therapist suggested that I stop. So I did because I would just be so furious. But I think about that, you know, as we think about Juneteenth and and pride and what that means and how pride is still very much geared to thin white gay men, cisgender gay men, and how, you know, we see a lot of black and brown queer folks really trying to take up space and think of different ways to to center themselves in it. And, you know, even then the conversations we then have to have in queer spaces too of, like, you can you can't tell someone that a space is safe. You can say you've you're trying your best to make it a safe space for all, but that person who feels the most depressed gets to decide that for themselves.
Briona Jenkins:Yep. And so when I was doing a lot of consulting work, I would tell people, I'm like, this is a brave space. I never wanna tell you you're safe here. That's on you. I don't wanna take away your autonomy, but I have done everything in my power to to help you be able to show up in whatever way feels safe for you and whatever confines that looks like.
Briona Jenkins:And that's how I feel about Austin right now. I think Austin is a brave space, but, you know, we're in Texas. We're in a blue dot right now. But then, you know, police brutality and, you know, we saw the riots during the the BLM movement and especially now with what's happening shoes. I think you can get so stuck in your, you know, your shoes.
Briona Jenkins:I think you can get so stuck in your vision of the world. And if you don't take a moment to think about what someone else is experiencing, then that I think that just kinda sets us all up for for for failure. Yeah.
Stacie Freasier:Yes.
Briona Jenkins:So, yeah. I know. I I mean, it's hard to, like I always think about pride is in June but we don't really do anything in Oz Austin till August, which is the hottest month of the year, which I'm still unsure how we got to August, but it's I'm gonna get over it.
Stacie Freasier:Okay. I'm gonna make a joke that might be in poor taste, but, I mean, that's probably the the thin white cis men who chose that because, you know
Briona Jenkins:Why not?
Stacie Freasier:They need to flaunt.
Briona Jenkins:No. It's hot. Sweaty Betty. No one wants that.
Stacie Freasier:Agreed.
Briona Jenkins:But I think I think about that too of what are we doing? How are we creating more space? What are we and not and in a way that's not like, virtue signaling. Like, I truly want people to do the effort to center people who don't look like them, who don't come from their same background. And, you know, I think we always think about this too, like, about rainbow washing, especially during pride month.
Briona Jenkins:And we see how Target flip flops all the time because they're trying to be people pleasers. And I'm like, just make a choice and stick with it. Like, you don't everyone isn't gonna like it. You don't need to be liked. I don't need to be liked.
Briona Jenkins:I actually prefer people don't like me. It really clears up a lot of energy in my life. I get to just show up and you get to like it or leave it. I it really truly does not affect me. I've been in therapy since I was 15.
Briona Jenkins:Trust me. I am centered. But I want more people to do that. I was like, you don't have to be, like, you don't have to be understood. You don't have to negotiate what feels right for you to appease other people.
Briona Jenkins:You just get to exist. And if other people don't like it, that's okay. I just want you to be safe, and you don't have to agree with me in order for me to be safe and for us both to be in the same space.
Stacie Freasier:Amen to that.
Briona Jenkins:Go ahead.
Soyinka Rahim:Yeah. I mean, you're speaking a lot of
Stacie Freasier:truth, and I don't even feel the need to to chime in because everything you're saying is is, a lot of people. I mean, that's why I wanted you to come and talk to people about this. Yeah. If you are just tuning in, we are focused today's conversation around, to the extent I can focus on anything as a human being, black queer liberation. Sitting here with Brianna Jenkins.
Stacie Freasier:Pronouns are sheher. Brianna has shared with us, her geo origin story. Shout it out to the grandmas, which I appreciate my grandmas raised me. I had teenage parents. We have a lot in common, babe.
Stacie Freasier:Like, I this is our first time sitting together, but I sociology major, college
Briona Jenkins:That's so funny. I know
Stacie Freasier:we need a person. 20 years in the nonprofit industrial complex. Which no one from that.
Briona Jenkins:We'll have to unpack that another day. Exactly. The nonprofit.
Stacie Freasier:Can't avoid it, but it's highly problematic.
Briona Jenkins:Well, I also think about the white saviorism and non the nonprofit space offering, especially as a fundraiser. I'm always like, lord. But that's a Mhmm. Again, a conversation for another day because that's a whole
Stacie Freasier:other day. I know a lot of that. That's a side stream.
Briona Jenkins:Especially primarily serving marginalized people. But
Stacie Freasier:For sure. We got y'all Insecure Oh. If you
Briona Jenkins:That's all I yes. No.
Stacie Freasier:Basically, we got
Briona Jenkins:talking about doing her, WeRatch cause I love that show. But that but literally every organization.
Soyinka Rahim:She nailed it. Even when they
Briona Jenkins:don't try to like, they're very well meaning people, obviously. But even still, like, I'm just like
Stacie Freasier:Okay. Well meaning is not enough. Like, as a white bodied human walking through, like, being well meaning is not enough. And in fact, it's quite harmful because I if I don't keep myself in check and aware of my whiteness, then I'm going to be hurting people all around me. And we all harm.
Stacie Freasier:We all harm as humans. We harm each other, but, we can actually reduce the amount of harm we are inflicting upon each other. And I that's why you know, that's part of why I have this show.
Briona Jenkins:Whenever I would go to a nonprofit and there was never one person of color in, like, the c suite or directors, we're like, what are you doing here? Like, even just someone like, if you're doing housing. Right? Like, you know, the housing crisis is affecting everyone for sure. But, I mean, let's just take Austin for example of, Austin's black population is around 8 to 10%.
Briona Jenkins:Of the people experiencing homelessness, about 30 to 40% of them are black. So what does that say about our numbers in this city? Then so when I was ever going to an organization and never see a person of color or a personal lived experience on that board or on that c suite for whatever thing that organization is focused on. I'd be like, what are we what are we doing? Like or they're bored.
Briona Jenkins:It just all looks the same, wealthy white people, and I'm just like, this is
Stacie Freasier:I could tell you what they're doing because I did it for a long time. I did it for a long time. Right? I I did it. So It just yeah.
Stacie Freasier:It's not right.
Briona Jenkins:It's it's not. And and like
Stacie Freasier:I said It's problematic. Again, it's harmful. Yeah. Thank you so much. And there is an alternative.
Stacie Freasier:And, and so we're gonna go back to our topic. I know. So sorry. And yet we drift.
Briona Jenkins:I could I could tangent. I'm so sorry.
Stacie Freasier:I do too. That's my thing
Briona Jenkins:in life.
Stacie Freasier:Alright. So let's talk about queerness in Austin, in the city we love. So, what are your thoughts? I have
Briona Jenkins:so many. You know, we we were talking before we came in here about you wanting to create, like, career programming on this show, and I mentioned my friend, Ara Juliet, who I love deeply. She's a local comic. She hosts trivia. She founded a, an event series called Black and Queer, and I was, like, really grown that over the last few years.
Briona Jenkins:And so she and I talk about this a lot. Like, she's doing a project right now with our friend, Ben, who was a queer director. And so we have this conversation often of, like, as queer women, queer black women in Austin, what does that look like? What do these spaces look like? How do we create more space for us?
Briona Jenkins:And it's so interesting to try to whenever you try to center black people in a thing, anywhere, it is so funny to me how offended people get. I'm like, but if you center the marginalized people, everyone else tends to always feel safer. It is when you go into a space that is predominantly white that you kinda like, you feel sort of like, are you am I on display? Am I gonna be be safe here? Like, you know, so I I think about that a lot too of like, of the pushback we get or, like, the tokenizing we get of black queer folks.
Briona Jenkins:Like, you only really tap a black queer folks during pride when you have programming to fill and during the rest of the year, we're kind of just around. Like, no. We are black and queer all year.
Stacie Freasier:And running all this dish.
Briona Jenkins:And you can find us.
Stacie Freasier:All the stuff.
Briona Jenkins:Yeah. You can find us all the time. Everyone is online. We're all Googleable. So think about that of of how Austin, I think, needs way more representation in in higher places.
Briona Jenkins:Like, I look at city council and the only black woman I see on city council is Natasha. You know, we had Greg for a while. I mean, as a as a Hispanic person, we had we had Greg and we had Delia. And, like, I'm glad that they are now doing what they're doing. But I just always think about that of, like, I would love for every single city council person to look different than the last because I would I think that would really truly represent Austin.
Briona Jenkins:Right now we have primarily way and I'm like, this is fine, but you're not creating a space where people can come in and feel like they can talk to you. So as far as, like, queerness in Austin goes, I'm also, like, not to out anyone, but, like, I would love to know, like, we have a queer person on the committee. Like, I mean, on on council. Like, I just seem there's so many different things and right, you're not gonna be everything for everyone. But if you try to, like, do more stuff for people and just create more space for conversation and and what does that look like?
Briona Jenkins:And so, you know, it's been really nice to, like, watch my friends create their own spaces, talk to other people, work with organizations that are primarily white or have a white executive director who are like, hi. We have free space that y'all can use at any time. What does that look like for you? And, you know, those organizations that will give back and create those sort of spaces. But, yeah, I don't know.
Briona Jenkins:I think Austin is a very hard place to be as a black queer person, as a black person. And you see this a lot, like, so many people move away. I mean, I, me, myself, moved away and probably move away again in the next 2 or 3 years. And, you know, so many of my other friends who are queer, not even black, but just queer who also just leave because they just don't feel like there's not a real space for us. Like, you have fourth Street downtown, but then you go to other large cities that are comparable to us, and they have, like, a whole section of town.
Briona Jenkins:Like, you think of Boys Town, you think of p town, you think of, like, all these places and other places. I'm just, like, we could do that, but the investment isn't there. And why is that? Because if you Google Austin, it's, like, best place to live as a queer person. I'm like, if you're white and queer, sure.
Stacie Freasier:No. Is it a qualify that with
Soyinka Rahim:a lot
Stacie Freasier:of Mhmm. Improvisees. Yeah. Right. Demographics.
Briona Jenkins:Yeah. And so and and I think that, you know, that ties to Juneteenth that just happened too of, like, you see what is the the priority? What is the investment? What is the and, you know, I'm not even talking about reparations. I'm gonna talk I'm not even talking about, like, actual dollars.
Briona Jenkins:What are you doing as a city to create space for black people to mourn, to ask questions, to for people in the community just receive questions and not maybe not even have an answer. That's also fine. I just want people to be paying attention to that and, you know, I think, there's just so many things that come to mind. I think about transportation. I think about folks who don't have a way to get from a to b, unless it's the bus, but then we see how often, like, bus lines are cut or the train that we have isn't really actually going into the communities it needs to go into.
Briona Jenkins:And I'm like, this is systematic. We could change this. Because if we keep doing construction on 35 for the rest of my existence, which I'm sure we will, we can actually put those dollars into investing into transportation for folks who actually need it. What would that actually look like for our city as far as, like, an access view looks like? So, yeah.
Briona Jenkins:I just, you know, I again, I have a soapbox as you can tell because I think about this stuff all the time. Again, activism work. Like, it is not that difficult to ask people what they need and say, hey, I can't make any promises, but I will put it on our docket to discuss.
Stacie Freasier:It's also not that difficult, now me speaking as a as a white body person to jump in this pool. Right? Like, get going on it. Like and what I mean on it, I mean justice work. Like, justice in any way, you've got to be less comfortable because it is uncomfortable and and it is I mean, when I say it is uncomfortable, I'm saying the society that we live in right now is not working for anybody at all.
Briona Jenkins:Right. And I think about was it it was during BLM or was so it was recently. And I kept seeing, like so essentially, like, supporter burnout. Like, folks who weren't in, like, the marginalized group, but they were so exhausted from supporting it. And I'm like, okay.
Briona Jenkins:Now try living this every day. Like Right. Imagine not being in a white body and and having to navigate microaggressions, which I don't believe in the micro in microaggressions. It's aggressions, period. Of oppression, of all these things because I don't I can't not be black.
Briona Jenkins:Like, this is this the life that I have. You get to come in and be an ally, but you also then get to hide behind your whiteness whenever it's convenient for you. I don't have that privilege. And so whenever, like, I'm just so burned out from, like, reposting or sharing or talking about it, I'm, like,
Stacie Freasier:And there's a space for for for exhausted white folks to talk about their exhaustion, but it is not to people of the global majority, people of color.
Briona Jenkins:It's not to me specifically. Right.
Stacie Freasier:It's to me. So call me.
Briona Jenkins:Yeah. Save
Stacie Freasier:it. After this break. We're actually gonna go to a a break, and we will be back.
KOOP:June 10th is a significant day in American history. On June 19, 18 65, approximately 250 enslaved black individuals in Texas were formally granted freedom. Tragically delayed nearly two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Declaration. In 1980, the Texas legislature established Juneteenth as a holiday. On June 17th, 21, President Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, making Juneteenth a federal holiday.
KOOP:The first recorded significant Juneteenth celebration took place on June 19, 1923 at the Overton Grove in Saint Mary's Colony, Dale, Texas, marking the beginning of a tradition of commemoration. Juneteenth is a reminder of the resilience and progress of the Black community throughout history. Co OP Radio proudly supports the Juneteenth celebration and the ongoing journey toward a more inclusive and equitable future for all.
KOOP:Life can be full of purpose and meaning without believing in God. That's why the atheist community of Austin is here, to promote atheism, critical thinking, secular humanism, and the separation of religion and government. Our 501c3 educational nonprofit organization serves the local Austin community through outreach programs, volunteer activities, and informational resources. Our online portals also offer regular audio video podcasts and social media content to a worldwide audience. To find out more and see how you can get involved, visit atheist dashcommunity.org
Soyinka Rahim:today. Are we on the air? Yes.
KOOP:Are you a fan of the heavy, groovy, and weird in your electronic music? Tune into infrasound sound system where we will explore the excesses and recesses of the subbase@coop.organdhd3radio.
Stacie Freasier:Welcome back. You are tuned into Racism on the Levels. I am your host, Stacey Fraser. Pronouns are she, they, and we are coming at you online everywhere, every nookandcranny all of our programs stream there. And also on the FM airwaves, 91.7 FM Austin.
Stacie Freasier:I am sitting here across from the lovely Brianna Jenkins who has graced me with her presence today. I'm gonna make a couple of community announcements. But I first want to share, this morning on my scrolling on the internets. A poem that came to me, and it's, from Arundhati Roy, which look them up if you don't know them. So let me read this
Soyinka Rahim:to you real quick. To love. To be loved.
Stacie Freasier:To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair, to never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple, to respect strength, never power, above all, to watch, to try and understand, to never look away and never never to forget.
Soyinka Rahim:So
Stacie Freasier:the announcement I want to make today was regarding the sunbird fest which is kicks off today. It is a 4 day arts and education festival organized by Austin community members in solidarity with Palestine. Sunbird Fest hopes to create a space of encounter for anyone in texas who supports Palestinian Liberation. So from today through 23rd, events are gonna be hosted around the city, including musical performances, art markets, film showings, educational workshops, yoga, movement, dance classes. There's also an ongoing raffle, an art auction made possible by the con, contributions of amazing local artists, makers and businesses.
Stacie Freasier:And today's kickoff starts with a cumbia showcase at Hotel Vegas and an indie rock lineup at the Lowdown Lounge. This event is completely not for profit and volunteer run. Participants are donating their time, spaces, talents and goods to raise money to directly support families in Gaza. So if you are interested, you can find out more by googling Sunbird Fest And, 2nd organizing effort happening that I actually am a co organizer on, so you can reach out to me, staciek0op.org for more information about Summerfest or and or the Mother's Day in Gaza Quilt Project. So we kicked off, this over mother's day, and we're going to be coming together on a regular basis and creating quilts or being in community with other people sitting around making quilts, painting quilts.
Stacie Freasier:If you've never made a quilt in your life, you are welcome to come and hang out. We are going to be hosting events all the way through Mother's Day in Palestine, which happens in March. So, we're gonna be culminating with spreading out the quilts, our creations on the Texas state capitol. So if you're interested in that, go to mother's day in gazakwilt.net and, stay tuned for upcoming quilting circles and we also have a Facebook page. So if you look up again, mother's day in Gaza quilt, in Austin, you will find that and I invite you to come and sit in community with me, eat some good food, make some art.
Stacie Freasier:That's what life's about. Food and art and music. And Brianna Jenkins. Oh. Welcome back.
Stacie Freasier:Thank you. So we are talking about blackness and queerness and conditions in Austin that make it difficult to be either of those categories unless you fit a very, very narrow cis white male with money category, which most people don't actually fit that category, that string of demographics. So you had mentioned right before the break that you're probably gonna leave in 2 or 3 years. So my question to you is, well, what what would compel you to stay? Like, what what needs to be here that could be here?
Briona Jenkins:That's a really good question. If I'm being honest, most of my family is still in the northeast, so that's a big reason why I wanna move back. I think it's also too nowhere in the US is perfect fair. But I feel way more safe in the northeast than I do in Texas. Actually the year that I moved here, I drove myself.
Briona Jenkins:I moved by myself. And it was right after Sandra Bland happened and my family obviously were very nervous and scared and called me every hour on the hour to make sure I was okay. But I think I think about the of that. I think about what safety actually means for me. If I decide to be a parent, what safety would mean for my future hypothetical children and whoever I end up marrying, if they're queer, if they're different race, if they're the same race, same, you know, whatever.
Briona Jenkins:There's a lot. I don't I don't know. I just feel like Texas has been, Austin has been a place where I've gotten to challenge myself and grow. Like, again, I mentioned all the organizations I've gotten to to work for and sit on boards for. I started my podcast here in 2019.
Briona Jenkins:I've been on a radio show in coop many years ago. So I've been I've gotten to live a really beautiful life in Austin and yet I still don't feel welcome and secure here. A lot of people know dating in a is a nightmare in Austin for a number of reasons. So I don't know. I don't, I don't think Austin really could get me to stay.
Briona Jenkins:I'm for sure wouldn't live in another city in Austin unless someone like literally bought me a house. It was like, here's a $1,000,000 you can stay for the rest of your life. Sure. But I mean I would like to see things change and like we talked about, transportation, food access, access to therapy. I would let, you know, there's a lot of conversation about 2 or 3 years ago around police reform that I feel like has kinda, you know, we've we are have a lot of other things going on right now.
Briona Jenkins:So I feel like that's kind of fallen by the wayside, if you will. So yeah, I just think there's so many different aspects that would need to change and if I'm being honest, I don't trust that Austin can do it in the time frame that I would need it to. But I mean, there's also like abortion to healthcare to, you know, for both, you know, queer people and everyone who who has a uterus and, people who could bear children. Like, there's just so many different things that are happening. Also, global warming, climate change, if you will.
Briona Jenkins:So there's just a lot. There's just there's just so many different things and, you know, I think Austin, for me, has has served its purpose. I'm like I said, I moved away for 6 months and came back only really because I was born in Connecticut and didn't want to move to New York at the time. So, yeah, I just I don't I just I don't think there is anything that can get me to stay. I just happen to live here for now, and I'm really lucky to to love my job.
Briona Jenkins:And and, you know, and again, going back to privileges, English is my first language. I'm very educated. I am, you know, conventionally attracted. Like, I am able-bodied. Like, there's so many privileges that I hold that I do not take for granted.
Briona Jenkins:But at the same time, I wanna continue to make space for folks who, you know, aren't educated, who don't have a car, who aren't able-bodied, who have all these different things going on. But also, you know, there's there was a lot of pushback I got from friends when I first started to move away. Like, well, if you don't do it, who will? I'm like, that's not on me though. Like, that's really unfair.
Stacie Freasier:Not your assignment.
Briona Jenkins:That's not I didn't sign up for this. Like, it's not fair. And also, it's really funny because most of them have moved out of the country or out of the state at least. So to have that conversation too of, like, we just all get so burned out. Like, there especially in the activism space here, like and I think people don't think about it because Austen is so liberal and so all these things.
Briona Jenkins:I'm like, but is it really? Like
Stacie Freasier:I used to think it
Soyinka Rahim:is and I don't know.
Briona Jenkins:Is it really? And that's why I'm like, you you and your space may think so, but it's not in the way that you think it is. So that to be said, I don't think there's really anything, which my boss and I was having this conversation today. She's like, it's your year of review. I'm like, it is.
Briona Jenkins:She's like, you're still here? Like, I am. Because she she knows, like, I tend to bounce. Like, I find a job I really love. I dedicate myself.
Briona Jenkins:I build the ship. I'm like, okay. I'm out. Like, I've done it. See you.
Briona Jenkins:The kids have gotten me to stay, though. Small little children. And I don't have kids of my own right now, so they really have latched on to me.
Stacie Freasier:Plus I can tell you're like me and that, hey, you're free to change your mind. So Yeah. Next week, you could say, oh, I'm staying and that's totally cool.
Soyinka Rahim:Yeah.
Stacie Freasier:But probably not. But you can.
Briona Jenkins:So I could. And I and I tell this to It might. My friends often. They're like, don't leave. I'm like, you guys, I don't have to check anything with anyone.
Briona Jenkins:I am single. I have no children. Like, I get to just do what I want right now, and I am really leaning into that space because one day I might not be. My I have a very clean organized apartment that if I leave something out, it's gonna be where I left it. One day I can come home, my house will look like a a crapshoot and because I'll be living I'll be in life with a different view of life at that time.
Briona Jenkins:But yeah. So for, yeah. I just I don't I don't think there's anything. I think it would take a lot. And I and I mostly think about this because Texas is one of the most diverse states in the country but is the most white politically, like by those who represent us.
Briona Jenkins:Like Houston's probably the most diverse city in the country and yet most of our representatives are white and that also always gets me like I think about speaking of Juneteenth, I think of redlining, I think of Jim Crow, I think of, you know, we've gotten away from those systems of oppression but they still exist now and voter suppression Yeah.
Stacie Freasier:They do this more. Liberation.
Briona Jenkins:Yeah. Right. They all just change. Right. And and you have to be paying attention in a way that I think a lot of people who don't have to don't.
Briona Jenkins:Right. So my time in Austin will come to an end eventually once I decide where I wanna go. I just don't know yet.
Stacie Freasier:Okay. Well, when you peace out and then we're all still here. That'll be my sweetie. Okay. Well, so so who are some of these organizations that you have said yes to that, we want that you want more people to know about to bring resources in that direction and resources in a lot of different takes on a lot of different definitions.
Stacie Freasier:Mhmm. But, who who do you think there is out there right now that can that's doing the work?
Briona Jenkins:Selfish plug. I sit on the board of Equality Texas and I love them. They do a lot of work at the capitol during, you know, legislation, the pledge session, which is coming up again, which if you can believe that. I worked at AJC for a while, Austin Justice Coalition, so I'm always gonna plug them. Texas Appleseed, I really love.
Briona Jenkins:D's not words, which was what Wendy Davis found organization. Move Texas, I always think about. There's just if I if I think about it, it's always gonna be like the political landscape of of things.
Soyinka Rahim:As far as, like, queer spaces, obviously, love Out Youth. They do
Briona Jenkins:a lot of great stuff with queer youth. But, yeah, I mean, the Kind Clinic is always a number one one for, like, queer health care specifically. Mamasana vibrant woman does a lot of work. I did consulting for them. They do a lot of work for black and brown moms around birthing and and do a little work and all that sort of stuff.
Briona Jenkins:Yeah. I mean, there's a bunch of abortion nonprofits I can't think of right now, but give them a Google because there's so many who are doing so much great work that I my brain is just fried at the moment.
Stacie Freasier:Have you ever done anything with Algo?
Briona Jenkins:Love them as well. Yes. See, I told you it's it's a Thursday after a really long week. But, yeah, I I just I also tell people too, like, if you Google Austin nonprofit and then would insert whatever you're interested in, millions of things will come. Did you know Austin has one of the highest nonprofits per capita in the country?
Stacie Freasier:Well, given the absence of philanthropic funding, that is, Hunger Games to me. Mhmm. So that's not something to brag about.
Briona Jenkins:No. That's what I'm saying. That's why, like, it's there are so many folks trying to do so many things because we're lacking in resources in our community.
Stacie Freasier:And it's the same 20 people doing those 20 things.
Briona Jenkins:But then I'll but then you'd look at how expensive it is to to live here, but then to know, like, the dollars aren't making it to who it needs to be Right. Going to. So
Stacie Freasier:I, I got back in 2021. So I Yes. I I left in 2003. So so I have amnesia from 2,003 to 2021. And, yeah, it took here's a plug for my love of Austin and my love affair with Austin.
Stacie Freasier:I mean, we've been hard on Austin this this hour, and there's reasons for that for sure that I validate. One thing I love about Austin is if you do recenter your values around just peace, love and justice, there is a really beautiful community of people where, I think what I've been back for 3 years, You start seeing each other everywhere because it's pretty small. And so even though it's a very hostile environment, there's a tight group of of justice and love centered people here. And so, I mean, say for Has that been your experience?
Briona Jenkins:Oh, for sure.
Soyinka Rahim:The activism
Briona Jenkins:space, like the literal disruptor space, 1,000,000,000 percent. We're everywhere. We're doing all the things. We're all we all have no voices because we're always on microphones and podcasts and radios and talking about all the stuff that's happening. So 1000000000 percent and, you know, we're at this thing.
Briona Jenkins:Like, we might as well just carpool together this thing because we're gonna go to this as well.
Stacie Freasier:And we do. And we do. Like,
Briona Jenkins:protests at the capitol at 9 AM. There's one at 4 PM. Like, I'll just stay and have lunch on the on, you know, on the grass. But, yeah, for sure. And I and I think that's one of the major thing that's really kept me here and kept my faith in the activism spaces.
Briona Jenkins:So many of us are dedicated to doing that work. But, again, I've I'm 34 now. Like, not that I'm old, but I'm like, I've been doing this work most of my life, if not all of my life. And then you think of the 8 years specifically in Austin that I've been here of, like when I tell you I used to be out every night doing something and then the pandemic hit and I literally had to sit down like, oh, I'm exhausted. I'm so burned out.
Briona Jenkins:And I was living alone at the time when we first went into quarantine and I was like, oh, okay. Like, it was a really interesting recentering during a very scary time. And then, like, you know, we lifted some things. We started going more out in the community And I talked to my friends, like, I miss it, but I don't miss it that much to, like, jump back in. So, yeah, I think about that too.
Briona Jenkins:Like, the true honest burnout of, like, we want to be there, we want to do these things. But then also thinking like the next generation of of activists that are coming up that I truly trust gen z. I'm like, y'all, not that it's your job, but they are really going to save us. Like, I truly wholeheartedly believe in the kids that are coming up right now because they challenge things in a way that I think millennials started to but then, like, we had that, like, people pleaser thing we're still unpacking in therapy in a way, like, the the gen z now are like, no, this isn't good. Like, we're gonna literally push back and and say no.
Briona Jenkins:So I I think I've it's been a really beautiful thing to watch that switch to, like watching the younger kids come up too.
Stacie Freasier:And on the topic of queerness, I am so thrilled to see gender deconstructed in such a rapid way in my lifetime. Mhmm. That has been beautiful. I have a 5 year old, at Austin Discovery School, and, the the conversation of pronouns like that is now mainstream at his school. And I mean, that's not even a not even a discussion.
Stacie Freasier:So I feel like there are areas, there are hope, there are glimmers of hope if you've if you if you wanna see them. Mhmm. Right? They're they're there, and we are going into lunch session as you mentioned. And, it makes me sweat.
Stacie Freasier:There's scary stuff.
Briona Jenkins:Thank you, man.
Soyinka Rahim:It makes
Briona Jenkins:me sweat.
Stacie Freasier:And I I do I feel like the pendulum is continuing to swing more conservative and I hope I'm wrong. I could be wrong. I'm wrong a lot.
Briona Jenkins:I don't know if you are.
Soyinka Rahim:I don't
Briona Jenkins:know if you are. And it's been interesting too, like, watching right now, everything happening in congress, that I just I just I just if you get nothing else from today's episode just pay more attention. Find whatever politician you align with, which I know is really hard right now with everything happening in Palestine, in Gaza, like, and we have another presidential election. Like, I get it. It's very anxiety inducing and daunting.
Briona Jenkins:But there's a woman out of Texas, Jasmine is it Jasmine Crockett? I can't remember her name right now. She just had the whole thing in congress. Give her a good Jasmine for Texas, I think is her Instagram. She's great.
Briona Jenkins:She's a black woman. She's in congress, and she's just top tier. But, like, for me, I listen to a lot of the stuff, like, she posts and and get me and and find reputable news sources that you enjoy. Like, any unbiased news you can get, any, like, neutral news. Like, I just want people to educate themselves not just to take whatever is clickbait or on the surface or we're just just fed to you.
Briona Jenkins:Like, do research and and find news that aligns with you in a way that you feel good getting educated in a way that isn't overwhelming.
Stacie Freasier:Yes. Democrasexy is someone locally that I follow that is actually having having an event tonight for, the bisexual and pan community
Briona Jenkins:Becky Bullock.
Stacie Freasier:Which people are wait listed.
Briona Jenkins:Yeah. No. She Becky's a badass.
Stacie Freasier:Yeah.
Briona Jenkins:It's a bad
Stacie Freasier:one. So yes. So yes. So, Democracy is out there educating people. There's a lot of voter suppression happening, and, just voting and knowing you can vote is, you know, something important, but getting engaged.
Stacie Freasier:And, I asked my friend recently at, we were at a national conference, and I said, you know, I love doctor Cornel West. I'm not I'm not making any here. I'm just sharing some conversation. And I said, you know, I love doctor West.
Soyinka Rahim:Like, I don't know what to do about, you know, this 2 party system in the US.
Stacie Freasier:And she's like, Stace, focus on the down ballot races. She's like, focus on the local stuff that's happening right here because in the recent thing I voted for, 2% came out to vote. 2%. And I think the person that I was voting for had won by 200 votes. Yeah.
Stacie Freasier:So I think if that is if that isn't is if that is an for anyone listening that, you know, if you're fretting about the national races and elections, like think about the down ballot stuff.
Briona Jenkins:The local stuff's what's gonna affect you the most.
Stacie Freasier:On a daily basis.
Briona Jenkins:On a daily basis and most impactful first because it'll quick it'll more likely quickly go into effect. But I do wanna I do wanna give space to the people who just feel so downtrodden right now because of the 2 party system and because how our current president has been treating the stuff in Gaza. A lot of friends that I have been having when I say debates about this election because it was like, I'm just not gonna vote. I'm like, but that does nothing for either of us. Like again, like the whole lesser of 2 evils idea, I know it is really annoying.
Briona Jenkins:But also like if you haven't Googled project 2 20 25, I need people to do that as this as well. I just want people to be educated because there's a lot of scary things that are that could happen if we do not vote.
Stacie Freasier:There's a lot of misinformation out there.
Briona Jenkins:But yeah. I just I just I I, I just always wanna remind people that, like, liberation and justice work comes from educating yourself. And it's not I'm not even talking about, like, going to college. I'm talking about, like, just changing your viewpoints, like, by being in community, talking to other people, getting to know your neighbors, asking questions, getting to know the people who sit on city council. Who's your representative?
Briona Jenkins:Like, just knowing all these things. So if you have a question, you know where to go. But, yeah. I think liberation starts with, like, believing in yourself and creating a space for you to show up fully and and then how do you defend what you believe in?
Soyinka Rahim:I think it's, I I appreciate
Stacie Freasier:you bringing that up because liberation is only gonna happen in community and it's going to happen in a community of people who are healing themselves and are on that journey to healing. And so, you know, one of the My son, I named him Rumi, and so a Rumi quote that I love is, you know, it's I'm gonna botch it, but it was something to the effect of, like, you know, I I wanted to change the world and and and then realized, you know, after all that effort that, the work is actually to change myself. And and I I believe that a lot of, hurt is happening. And if people, if their activism, if their just as liberation work is just to heal their own trauma and rest, especially you mentioned being tired. I mean, you know, women of the global majority, specifically, rest is the healing.
Stacie Freasier:Right? Like, it's that's just not your assignment. Shout out to Mercedes Ferry, Church of Black Rest. Shout out to Fatima Mann, who was my guest last month on the show. Anyway, like the nap ministry too?
Stacie Freasier:The nap ministry. The nap ministry.
Briona Jenkins:That's right.
Stacie Freasier:Prioritize. And also, everybody. Like any one person doing anything is a characteristic of white supremacy culture. 1 person can't solve this. Like, one person's not gonna do this, and you're not single handedly gonna do it.
Stacie Freasier:So, you know, lean into knowing that there's a collective here working for liberation.
Briona Jenkins:And I also think too, like, my grandma, Meshirah, she was a big believer in, like, you are the company you keep. So, like, literally, whatever this is why you have friends. Like, talk to your friends about what's what's happening. Like, you don't have to go through this alone. But I also think the same thing goes with, like, activism and liberation.
Briona Jenkins:Like, inform your friends about what is happening on the ballot, why they should be voting, things that are coming up in city council calls, like, whatever's gonna come up as, like, a prop. Like, we should be educating each other as a form of liberation as well. Because that's the thing. Like, they don't want us talking to each other. They don't want us feeling empowered.
Briona Jenkins:They don't want us doing calls for change.
Stacie Freasier:Exactly.
Briona Jenkins:Because then they know they the I I
Stacie Freasier:hope Status quo will be maintained.
Briona Jenkins:And I'm always like, the politicians who are in office work for us. Like, we sign their paychecks essentially. So we get to decide if they're doing their job to the fullest. And if they're not, we get to we get to get them out of there. So also, you know, whenever something comes up that is really effective to you, call your, city council person.
Briona Jenkins:They have to acknowledge your message in some way. So I think that is also really important to acknowledge.
Stacie Freasier:So thank you, Brianna. We are running real real low on time. We have a few minutes left, but I I want to let folks know, particularly, during pride, there's a lot of stuff out there. It is co opted by capitalism. There is a lot of feels, like on all sides about pride.
Stacie Freasier:And, I want you to know that I am a proud queer person in this city and there are so many more of us out there. And so you are not alone. You can find me and so many other people. Again, I'm going to just lift up a couple of orgs that I can think of off the top, which is, the Chrysalis Project, All Go, Equality Texas,
Soyinka Rahim:queerbomb, which just happened,
Stacie Freasier:follow democracy. There are a lot, a lot, a lot of p flag as a strong local community.
Briona Jenkins:Yeah. Yeah.
Stacie Freasier:And for for queer people of color, yeah, I'll go, I would say, is is probably the the the number one next call. I could take of.
Briona Jenkins:I always think of TENT too. The Trans Education Network of Texas is a really great one. I love them a lot.
Stacie Freasier:TENT. Mhmm. Trans Education Network of Texas. Thank you, Brianna. Mhmm.
Stacie Freasier:Thank you all for listening. Thank you for, again, for sharing the airwaves with me. Dear listener, I will be back actually in 2 weeks with a brand new show called Nonviolent Austin Radio Hour, which I am joined by my cohosts, comrades, brother Robert Tyrone Lilly of Grassroots Leadership and, brother Jim Crosby, who, is a lay clergy for St James Episcopalian Church. We are going to be talking about non violence and applying that locally to the Austin community. That's July 4th, which is poetic that that's our first show.
Stacie Freasier:And then you can tune in, every, my my schedule just changed. Every 1st Thursday of the month at 1 PM is nonviolent Austin Radio Hour. Every 3rd Thursday of the month at 1 PM is racism on the levels, which you've just been listening to on k0op.orgor91.7fm. Remember, in all things, in all ways, love is the highest level.
Soyinka Rahim:I gotta love song. I gotta get song. In this world, you only need one song. To live your life like you visualize a fun land purpose, I take it nothing. Never giving up on the love we in a love
KOOP:song.
Soyinka Rahim:Travel the world, sharing your time with the young and the old and the rich and the poor. The conversation that'll move your soul. K00p HD 1 HD 3 Hornsby.
KOOP:I asked Rhiannon Giddens to talk about the