I come from a long line of unbothered women, Black women,
who fought injustice on reflex, flicking fascism
off the end of a cigarette, a helmet of pink curls,
plumes of prayers and Virginia Slims smokes for armor,
side-eyeing Jim Crow and Uncle Sam,
daring their fingers to pull the trigger, unbothered.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
My name is Ria Thompson-Washington.
I use she/her pronouns.
And what I do for a living is I teach people
to resist state oppression.
I do this work for a number of reasons,
mainly because I can't just sit by and not do anything,
because my mother, I watched her example of helping other people
in our community, in our family, in our extended family,
anywhere.
And so I learned that being a good person
is using what you have to help other people.
I met her.
It was during orientation.
I was the Dean of Students at UDC
David A. Clarke School of Law.
And during orientation, we ask all students to stand
up and introduce themselves.
Ria stands up and says, I am a queer, cisgendered,
Afro-Dominican from Texas.
And you could have heard a pin drop, right?
This is her very first introduction
to the whole school.
She is loud and proud of everything she is.
And I knew right then, she was gonna
be a force to be reckoned with.
Walk around!
I've been described as a tornado,
because I can drop into a space and agitate the gravel,
if you will.
Don't put your hands on the people that are standing here.
OK.
And they won't put their hands on you.
My father's mother bore 10 children
in the southernmost Carolina on sharecropped land.
My mother's mother brought her here
to this land of the free for a better life and opportunity.
My heroines don't need capes.
They wore pearls and patent leather purses while plotting
revolution and planting seeds.
I am their unbothered daughter.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
I grew up in Southern California and Texas,
because Spanish was my mother's first language.
And she liked being in communities
that felt like home.
Because of my skin color, I experienced
a lot of like anti-Blackness and misogynoir.
And that required me to be tough.
In organizing spaces, the first communities
that I started organizing were Latinx
communities in Texas, the workers who were
organizing to form a union.
And so there was a need to be able to show, like, not only do
I care about this issue, I want you
to have representation at work.
But I also care, because my abuela lives
in San Antonio still, right?
My grandmother.
It's important, because I am a part of the community
that's affected.
I care about what happens to brown people.
I care about what happens to Black people.
I care about what happens to community.
When I walked into the room, they saw
me as just a Black organizer.
But when I left the room, they were like, oh, that's family.
I protested and marched during rain, snow, sunshine, and hail.
Well, not really hail, but I would.
My name is Makia Green.
People who love me call me Kiki.
And I am an community organizer.
Ria really is a mentor for me.
Especially being a Black, fat, queer woman,
it has been so important for me to see
someone that reflected myself.
The hot topic is, support Black women, trust Black women.
But that doesn't come with paying Black women.
That doesn't come with respecting Black women.
That doesn't come with making sure that Black women get time
to rest when we literally live from tragedy to tragedy,
from every single thing that happens.
And we always find ourselves, Black women,
holding the heart of the community
and making sure that we take care of everybody.
My family structure allows me to be able to rest.
I have a wife who takes great care of me.
I try to focus on the people whose rights are being taken
away, to teach them, to educate them,
to inoculate them how to be able to fight that system.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
These tips are not legal advice.
You should always proceed in a way that makes you feel safe.
However, you should also know what
your rights are in the streets.
You have the right not to consent to a search.
If you are being searched illegally, don't resist.
Just say--
I do not consent to a search.
In this case, anything that may be found
in the course of the search may not be admissible in a case
against you.
You have the right to know whether you're being detained
or whether you're free to go.
If you are being held, you have the right
not to say anything to law enforcement
without being in the presence of a lawyer.
If you are being detained, the question you should ask is--
Am I being detained, or am I free to go?
You have the right to remain silent.
If you are being arrested, the best thing to say
is nothing at all.
If you choose to say anything, say--
I'm going to remain silent.
I would like to speak to a lawyer.
Be aware of your surroundings.
Protest energy can change quickly.
Make sure you know where your exits
are and you know who's around you and who's not around you.
I crown myself queen, wrapping my head in spells
of protection, paint my lips with the pink petals
of my foremothers, who waged rebellion by existing.
Feathers from my mother dangle from my ears.
She taught me how to fly over the heads
of those unbothered to change.
[MUSIC PLAYING]