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Feminists Around the World: Paris Hatcher · Stuff Mom Never Told You

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  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to Stefan
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  Speaker 1: Ever told you production? I heart radio?
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  Speaker 2: Yes, and welcome to February, the month I have the
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  Speaker 2: most problem saying, even with it being a leap year,
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  Speaker 2: the shortest one of the year, that was obviously allotted
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  Speaker 2: as a Black History month, And yes, that's racist. We're
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  Speaker 2: calling that out as it is, as we do every year.
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  Speaker 2: So there you go. But moving on, we do love
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  Speaker 2: a celebrating activist in the black community and do so
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  Speaker 2: all year long, but also we love making sure to
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  Speaker 2: fully celebrate this month as it has been set aside
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  Speaker 2: I guess designated to highlight and give flowers to those
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  Speaker 2: in the black community. So of course we're not going
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  Speaker 2: to waiver from that. So today we are talking about
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  Speaker 2: activist Paris Hatch. Yeah, and Hatcher is a fierce, active
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  Speaker 2: and human rights advocate. She has worked for years advocating
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  Speaker 2: for the rights for their black and queer communities, as
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  Speaker 2: well as obviously feminist communities, and has led and founded
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  Speaker 2: different organizations throughout her life.
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  Speaker 1: Here's a bit about her from the Women's March dot
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  Speaker 1: com site, where she is serving as a part of
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  Speaker 1: the board of directors. Paris Hatcher is a black queer
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  Speaker 1: feminist in Love with the South with over ten years
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  Speaker 1: of experience on the local, national, and international level. Paris
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  Speaker 1: has been working with leading organizations to amplify the leadership
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  Speaker 1: of marginalized communities when public policy campaigns and advance reproductive
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  Speaker 1: and sexual health in justice, gender justice, and queer liberation. Notably,
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  Speaker 1: she co founded and was the executive director of Spark
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  Speaker 1: Reproductive Justice, now one of the leading reproductive health and
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  Speaker 1: justice organizations in the Southeast. Under her direction, sparkled successful
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  Speaker 1: advocacy campaigns, increased the participation of women of color, queer
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  Speaker 1: and transuse of color, and young people in the political process,
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  Speaker 1: and worked with stakeholders to begin to shift the narrative
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  Speaker 1: about reproductive health and justice in the state of Georgia
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  Speaker 1: and in the Southeast. She completed her Masters of Arts
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  Speaker 1: in Africana Women's Studies at Clerk Atlanta University with a
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  Speaker 1: research focus on Caribbean women's activism and social movements.
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  Speaker 2: YEAH and another. One of those organizations along with Spark
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  Speaker 2: include a Black Feminist Future, which was founded in twenty
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  Speaker 2: fourteen or BFF and according to their own site, Blackfeminist
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  Speaker 2: Future dot org quote the organization was formed in response
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  Speaker 2: to the twenty fourteen uprisings because of the lack of
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  Speaker 2: response and outrage over the murders of black women, girls,
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  Speaker 2: and gender expensive people, despite those same folks being on
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  Speaker 2: the front lines of movements to end the police violence.
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  Speaker 1: And when she was asked why she started BFF, she
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  Speaker 1: said she wanted to create a unique and important space
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  Speaker 1: to amplify the needs as well as the power, of
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  Speaker 1: black women, girls, and gender expansive people in the United States,
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  Speaker 1: and on the BFF site, they explain the importance of
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  Speaker 1: Black feminism and its meaning. Quote BFF defines black feminism
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  Speaker 1: as an ideology or belief system that explains how power
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  Speaker 1: and systems of oppression are both injured, acted, and systemic,
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  Speaker 1: and provides us with a blueprint for individual and collective liberation.
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  Speaker 2: Right and they continue, black feminisms explain how systems of
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  Speaker 2: oppression and power like white supremacy, patriarchy, capitalism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism,
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  Speaker 2: et cetera, are both interconnected and systemic. As Black people,
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  Speaker 2: we live lives of multiple identities and experiences that inform
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  Speaker 2: how our world is ordered and ultimately impact our daily interactions, thought,
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  Speaker 2: and lives. We experience power and oppression and our identities
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  Speaker 2: at the same time. This also applies to how we
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  Speaker 2: experience our identity as black people. Black feminisms helps us
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  Speaker 2: understand that we do not experience our identities singularly. The
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  Speaker 2: identities we hold are interconnected in the same way these
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  Speaker 2: systems are. For this reason, as black feminists know that
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  Speaker 2: in order to win, we cannot prioritize one system or
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  Speaker 2: identity over another, but instead use an intersectional or a
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  Speaker 2: black feminist approach in our fights for freedom. With this
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  Speaker 2: in mind, as black feminists, we believe it is essential
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  Speaker 2: that we examine our personal lives as well as the
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  Speaker 2: roots of these systems in order to understand how power
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  Speaker 2: and oppression work. Black feminisms take shape in many forms.
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  Speaker 2: Hence we say black feminisms. The work of black feminists
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  Speaker 2: is global, intersectional, pan African, anti capitalist, radical socialists, afrofuturist,
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  Speaker 2: and so much more. It is a legacy of liberation
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  Speaker 2: work that has come before us and that we continue.
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  Speaker 2: And then they go on and say, we invite you
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  Speaker 2: to use our definition of black feminisms as a starting
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  Speaker 2: point for your exploration into advancing black feminism as the
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  Speaker 2: blueprint to our collective liberation. Black feminisms is a way
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  Speaker 2: to analyze systems of power, especially impacting those of us
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  Speaker 2: marginalized by race, gender, class, sexuality, ability, and beyond. This
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  Speaker 2: means we do not look at these systems as isolated,
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  Speaker 2: but instead interrogate how they all weave together into a
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  Speaker 2: larger picture. And y'all, this is a great example of
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  Speaker 2: what we mean about intersectional right.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, and they have been working with these principles and
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  Speaker 1: ideals since the beginning of the founding of the organization.
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  Speaker 1: They have worked on the issue of abortion, voting, and
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  Speaker 1: collapsing the patriarchy. Hatcher has been working intensely in reproductive
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  Speaker 1: rights advocacy as well. As we mentioned earlier, she helped
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  Speaker 1: found and was executive director of Spark Reproductive Justice Now.
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  Speaker 1: When she announced her decision to step down, she talked
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  Speaker 1: about what they were able to accomplish during her time
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  Speaker 1: as executive director, and some of those things include led
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  Speaker 1: a campaign to end the practice of shackling pregnant incarcerated
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  Speaker 1: women in Georgia, led a proactive national cultural shift around
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  Speaker 1: the issue of race, gender and mass incarceration. Implemented innovative
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  Speaker 1: programming like Legislate This, the Fire Media Camp and Ignite
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  Speaker 1: twenty twelve, the first LGBTQ Youth of color convening in
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  Speaker 1: the Southern region, anchored two national movement building initiatives, Trust
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  Speaker 1: Black Women and the Third Wave Network, and interjected a
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  Speaker 1: gender and queer liberation framework.
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  Speaker 2: Right, So, she's done a lot, and this is just
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  Speaker 2: two of the organizations we highlighted that she founded and
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  Speaker 2: have done a lot for. Of course, us as Georgians
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  Speaker 2: are very grateful for what she has done and it
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  Speaker 2: still continues to do because obviously after the Roe v.
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  Speaker 2: Wade overturning, she has been very loud and vocal about
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  Speaker 2: the need to fight for reproductive justice. Moved to in
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  Speaker 2: Violence also did a profile on her and when she
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  Speaker 2: was asked what brings her to this work, she said,
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  Speaker 2: I have just always felt really called. When I was young,
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  Speaker 2: I wanted to make a difference. I think for me,
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  Speaker 2: what stands out as a really big moment in my
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  Speaker 2: life is when I learned about the sit ins that
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  Speaker 2: happened in Greensboro by young people, by the young students
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  Speaker 2: and the Greensboro four. I learned about them when I
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  Speaker 2: was nine years old. I entered an essay contest about
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  Speaker 2: their legacy because by the time it was nineteen ninety,
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  Speaker 2: it was thirty years since that sit in, and I
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  Speaker 2: just was so amazed that you could do something like
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  Speaker 2: that to change the world. And then she kind of
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  Speaker 2: goes on to talk about the love of her people.
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  Speaker 2: I think of just deep, deep, deep, abiding love of
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  Speaker 2: my people, and of what has been possible. I think
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  Speaker 2: about the lofgacy of this work and what it has
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  Speaker 2: meant for people to just feel called. It does feel
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  Speaker 2: like a calling. When people feel like that around different
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  Speaker 2: types of calling. It feels definitely like a calling. It's
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  Speaker 2: not a job, it's not work anymore. Yeah, she's done
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  Speaker 2: some amazing things. We thank her personally. I thank you
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  Speaker 2: so much for what you have done for our community
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  Speaker 2: in Georgia in itself, because we know she has done
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  Speaker 2: a lot to help marginalized people and just people in
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  Speaker 2: general care community.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, yes, thank you, and I'm sure again. Well, we'll
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  Speaker 1: check back in and see what else she's done in
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  Speaker 1: the future, but for now, as always, if you have
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  Speaker 1: any suggestions for this segment or anything that we talk about,
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  Speaker 1: you can email us our emails Stephanie and Momsteff at
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  Speaker 1: iHeartMedia dot com. You can find us on Twitter at
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: mom Stuff podcast or on Instagram and TikTok at Steph.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: I've never told you. We have a tea public store
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  Speaker 1: and we have a book you can get wherever you
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  Speaker 1: get your books. Thanks as always too, our super producer
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  Speaker 1: for senior executive Heir Maya and your contributor Joey. Thank
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  Speaker 1: you and thanks to you for listening. Steff I never
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