Generation Now : The Full Interview Transcript
Interview by Anh Nguyen and questions drafted by Angela Li
Some parts of this interview may be repeated if you have already read the highlight of this interview on our Wix website.
Q: Let’s begin with a little introduction- Sophia Krause & Keneeshah Kwaramba — either of you can get started first.
Keneeshah : My name’s Keneeshah, I’m 16 years old, and I have lived and grown up in southern Ontario for the whole of my life. I’m really interested in political awareness and social justice. I also have a passion for healthcare and STEM, and I’d love to pursue a career there. GenNow is one of my [current] passions, especially getting our team together and doing something for the youth of today and beyond.
Sophia : I’m Sophia, I am also 16, and I’m from southern Ontario. My passions also include politics. I really love political science, that’s what I hope to study, and I hope to pursue a career in the federal government of Canada, in either law or Indigenous reconciliation. I’m also really passionate about our organization. I love writing [and] I love creating works that are inspiring and helpful.
Q: For the readers out there who don’t know about Generation Now, can you briefly talk about your organization’s mission and the three pillars that your organization’s work surrounds?
Keneeshah : Generation Now is an organization for the youth of today, tomorrow, and beyond. I think our organization’s not just based for Generation Z and the generation that we have today, but it’s more of a constant: informing youth [and] bringing them towards the frontlines. Our three pillars are health and human rights, the environment, and the world around us. Those three pillars are sort of like a moral code for us. For us, with social awareness, I think, as a leader, not just in a CEO position or in a company position, just being socially aware is a good mindset to have for any leader in whatever they do.
Sophia : Like Keneeshah said, our three pillars, Human Rights and Health, The Environment, and The World Around Us are kind of our moral standards. It’s what we always want to be educating and informing on. We always want to make sure that what we’re doing aligns with those three pillars.
Q: On your website, you state, in the description of one of your pillars, The World Around Us, that you “will also talk about how to use social media to build connections and find common ground through many global systems.” Could you expand more on how you guys use social media to respond to and raise awareness for global issues?
Keneeshah : I think during this quarantine and pandemic, a lot of people have been wanting to be more aware of social issues and find out ways that they can help with other global issues that are happening right now. I think social media is such an awesome tool and interesting to work out how things can be — how you can reach out to other people around the world, and still be connected in some way. Infographics is one way that we really love to be able to put out information. It’s easily repostable, and I think that a lot of people can get something easily from it. Not a lot of people have the opportunity to read a full paragraph or read a whole article. I think infographics are something that we put little information together, but we still get the main idea and the main point of what we’re trying to put across.
Sophia : As Canadians, we tend to live in this kind of bubble where we have very, inadvertently censored feeds and streams of news. So having this connection to social media, we get to see a lot of American influence and we get to see influence from other countries. Since we’ve built our team for the past few weeks, we have quite a few members from around the world who bring up points that we may have not heard about had we not met them through social media, or had they not learned through social media. I think it can be a really powerful tool that also comes with some side effects. It could be misinformation, not doing enough research and posting things . . . you can get into the whole performative activism side of that, but I know that’s not the point of the question you asked. [Sophia chuckles at this.]
Q: In general, how do you guys use your platform to educate GenZ on current socio-political issues? I know you guys mentioned social media, so you could talk about how you use your website and other things like that.
Keneeshah : Right now, we publish articles created by team members and our writers and our researchers who gather information for our writers, so that information is based on not biased sources. Our writers are from diverse countries around the world, which adds a lot of perspective into systems and how the world works, not just in our own bubble, like Sophia said, but all around us and how it can affect us. One of our writers, Catarina, published a really great article that I loved reading — it was about Brazil and the women’s rights there and how the government is so biased, but also censorship has played a role into that issue and how so many things are covered and tainted into the way that it’s not. I think that one point that she said was that you kinda think of Brazil as the land of the free, the Amazon, and all these kind of beautiful things, but it’s kind of tainted by and not as projected as by the media about things that are not being said.
Q: With the revitalization of the Black Lives Matter movement: what is GenNow’s stance on that?
Keneeshah : I think Black Lives Matter is partly responsible for us starting this organization, and I think being in quarantine, like I said, has made us think about what’s going on and how we want to have an impact on this world, and Black Lives Matter has kind of been the spark for us, so personally I think Black Lives Matter, although it does deal with police brutality and finding justice for people in those systems within the police force, I think there’s so much more. It has opened so many revenues to talking about so many more things that have not been said, like colorism and how you tackle that, along with racism and how do you tackle small things just like hair, culture, and so many things that we’ve kind of been suppressed to not talk about because we feel like we should be grateful to be living in Canada or America, but these things should be talked about.
Sophia : Yeah, I have to agree with Keneeshah in that when the George Floyd protests were first starting up right after he was murdered, we both kind of said, “Look, we need to do something — we don’t know what it is yet, but it needs to be something”. I can’t speak for Keneeshah, but for me personally, as a white person, I’ve been given this privilege that I didn’t earn, and I really — I took the time to educate myself on things that I knew were happening but didn’t know the exact extent of. It’s still a constantly running process, and I think Generation Now is going to be a really great opportunity for us to expand and find more resources and more areas of research and growth. Again, I can only speak for myself, but I think that, without the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement, we wouldn’t be in this place. We might’ve started something eventually, but I think that was the big starter.
Anh : I think that what’s really amazing about our generation is, you know, you said that you needed to do something even if you didn’t know what yet. I think that’s really important now because our generation has that spark, and despite not necessarily — — sometimes we don’t even know what tools we have to implement change, but I really think what’s important is that we do have that spark. And you guys did create something really amazing!
Q: In June in Review, you touched upon George Floyd, and recently, on the 23rd [of August, Jacob S. Blake became a victim of police brutality]. How would you say that Gen Now wants to go about spreading awareness about Black Lives Matter and addressing what has happened recently?
Keneeshah : Me and Sophia have definitely had so many conversations where we’ve sat down and asked, how do we address another life that has been taken? There are so many people — Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and so many more people that I kind of struggled [with] how do we put out this information without tainting it to another “victim story”. Like, how do we spread it to another point of awareness where we’re talking about what has been done, what systems are the actual problem, [and] what can we do for more action? Instead of, of course mourning and grieving is what we need sometimes, but also in the place that we are right now, I think everyone’s trying to search for some change somewhere. I’ll let Sophia talk because she did write the article, which was well done.
Sophia : Thank you. Like Keneeshah said, we’ve definitely been reflecting recently on how to go about covering these recurring tragedies. We don’t want to release victim story after victim story, so it’s this really delicate balance of honoring these people whose lives were taken from them too soon and also trying not to overwhelm people with tragedy after tragedy. We’ve been speaking recently with our writers as well- like, how do we cover these issues and the response from the media, what this means for this town or this state, province, country, whatever. It’s really been a learning experience on how do we talk about these people, how do we honor their lives, and how do we help people understand that this is a recurring theme, and that there are going to be patterns in how people react, and how you react, how you share information- if you’re sharing videos that you have to put a content warning over- is that helpful? We’ve really been talking about — — learning how to cover these issues with grace and with respect. I think that’s what we’re trying to do moving forward.
Keneeshah : And also not to desensitize people, because I think that’s a lot of what’s happening. I saw an instagram post, where it’s like, Black people dying on camera is not normal. It shouldn’t be normal. I think getting that to people and learning that this shouldn’t be happening and how do we make this not desensitized where we just say, “Oh it’s just another day.”
Anh : I definitely agree with that, and I really admire and value the amount of thought that you put into your approaches to addressing Black Lives Matter and the recent events. I think it’s really important that there are people in our generation and people out there in the world that really do take these matters and really reflect on them a lot before turning those thoughts into actions.
Sophia: Yeah, I think that’s another thing we’ve been struggling with; we’ve had this conversation with our team a lot: how do we stay relevant, how do we post news as it happens while also providing enough respect to the situation? So, it’s been difficult, but I think that it’s a conversation that is important that we keep having.
Q: The Black Lives Matter movement has revealed America’s deeply rooted, institutional racism to the rest of the world. However, systemic racism is not limited to the United States itself. As high school students in Ontario, can you speak more on institutional racism in Canada?
Sophia: Canada has kind of created a name for itself in being this perfect, beautiful mosaic of loving and accepting everyone of every race, religion, creed (look how many refugees we accepted in 2015) and it’s great on the surface that that is the image our government presents, the image that the people represent, but when you really look into it, Canada is built on the very institutionalized racism as America was. We were a British colony before we became an independent country, and in the name of Christianity, there was a mass Indigenous genocide that lasted over 100 years of sending Indigenous people to residential schools, stripping them of their culture, of their religion, of their identity, and trying to assimilate them into Eurocentric culture. Along with racism against Indigenous people, with the First Nations, Métis, and Inuit people in Canada, there is institutionalized racism against Black people, in towns like Africville, and just yesterday, in Toronto, there was a protest in Little Jamaica, and one man who was protesting was in distress and there were four or five police officers who assaulted him to the ground, and it doesn’t get media coverage because Canada’s always trying to save face and go, “Look how much better than America we are.”
Keneeshah: During the period where we were just about to start with the Black Lives Matter movement and our organization, I think I wanted to delve deep into what’s happening and how has it affected us as Canadians, which I think, as a Canadian, it’s kind of a hard balance to have where you are kind of separate as a Canadian, but you’re so connected to American culture, where everything that happens there is kind of like a reflection of what’s happening here sometimes. Sometimes we forget that we are a separate nation, and we have our own problems here and separate situations that have happened. I created a post just for my personal instagram just to share with people that I know, but I realized that the education has been so tainted to think that we were the “white saviours,” we helped them escape from slavery to Canada, but there was slavery in Canada, there was segregation in Canada, there were places where we couldn’t go or, you know, there’s so many things that were just not detailed in history books that I never was able to see from my education where — there was not an acknowledgement of the tragedies that have happened and the people that have had to pick up the pieces and start a whole new life. I think that the research that I have done in those parts is — it’s important to know that Canada has their separate issues from America.
Anh : I think that people forget that, and then they absentmindedly say, “Let’s just go to Canada!”
[We all burst into laughter at this thought.]
Keneeshah: I know that no country or nation is ever perfect, but I think that as a country to acknowledge these things and to want to make a better change and start somewhere is where things need to begin.
Anh : I think that’s really important. The language, sometimes, that people who are critical of the Black Lives Matter movement and everything else is like, “Why don’t you just leave the country?” I’ve had this argument with people before, and the thing is, if I leave, there’s going to be more problems in a different country. Especially with my background, personally, I have Vietnamese refugees as parents, so whether it’s our parents or our ancestors or others, they moved to either America or Canada for a reason, so we can’t just up and leave. We can’t just leave the problems. You can’t run away from those. I think that’s what, again, Gen Z is all about. We’re all about tackling those and making sure that we make lasting change.
Keneeshah : Definitely. As a child who has immigrant parents and my brother who came from another country, it’s kind of hard to hear people say, “Why don’t you just go back?” when they colonized our country, they changed it for the worse and there’s nothing left to go back to. I think people just take slavery as, “Okay, it was taken and put to America or Canada,” but they don’t realize that we had slavery in our countries where we were used against each other, and we were segregated in our own country, and there were so many effects of slavery that haven’t been talked about enough, where our resources and so much other stuff was taken. I feel like when people say just to go back, I couldn’t do that personally as I would be giving them all that they wanted — that I would not be able to thrive in this place.
Q: Recently, the entire Asian/AAPI youth based community, has had a reckoning of sorts about what it actually means to be representative and inclusive of the pan-Asian community. Going along these lines, especially with the topics of diversity and inclusion being brought to the table more often, how is Generation Now demonstrating the importance of diversity, representation, and inclusion through your team and your platforms?
Keneeshah: Me and Sophia have talked about how representation is so important and how you project that in whatever you do. With our writers, that’s such a great platform for them to speak their opinions, speak their thoughts and of course, from different backgrounds and ethnicities, you get different perspectives and ways to look at different things. The way that we try to put out our media, we try to shine light on voices that have not been heard, have not been spoken or have not had the opportunity to speak. I think that’s how we try to diversify our media and content.
Sophia: Aside from having a team that is from so many different places and having so many different experiences, I think this applies to Keneeshah as well, but I know in my own personal life, I’ve been trying to have conversations with people who don’t agree with me. Which can really suck sometimes because I feel like, as a generation we get so used to having people who agree with us and we think of these people who want to fight for the same things who are in the same stream of TikTok videos and their feed, you know? It gets so easy to get caught in this echo chamber of the same opinions, even if they are opinions of reform. Sometimes it’s not enough to diversify your Instagram feed and follow new accounts. It’s having conversations with parents or relatives or superiors or managers who don’t agree with you and I think that’s been a really important part as well about expanding our narrative and trying to appeal to as many people as possible while still staying true to what we represent and what we believe in.
Keneeshah: I think in order to criticize or point out things different from the other side that’s opposite from where you are, you have to understand where they’re coming from and understand why they think these things to be able to criticize and to put this out and say, “This is what I see it as, and this is what I’ve learned from what they see it as.”
Anh : Yeah, I think that’s really important, and like you, Sophia, mentioned, having an echo chamber — — a lot of our organizations — — we stand on the same side regarding a lot of issues, so I definitely think it’s important to also be exposed to what other people argue, and like you said, Keneeshah, to have a better understanding of that so we can criticize them better.
Q: Intersectionality, as a term, has been around for a while, but it has only been recently taken into account more often. As an organization, do you plan on incorporating intersectionality into your work, and if so, how?
Sophia : I think our goal from the get-go is to be as intersectional as possible in what we write about, who we include, what voices or stories we choose to amplify, and I think that that is what we’re trying to go by the principle of. We’re really trying to examine what voices we’re amplifying, what media we are sharing, and what media we’re creating to try and make sure it’s as inclusive for everyone, and I feel like in terms of intersectionality, so many microaggressions have been coming out. Ableism is a big one, words that you didn’t realize were ableist, terms that you didn’t realize were microaggressions against Black people, etc. I think, [and] this might be a terrible answer, but I think that we’re just trying to grow and keep intersectionality at the forefront of our minds without having to bring it up every moment.
Keneeshah : I love how you say that too, because I think it’s so important where we don’t have to say we’re intersectional feminists, we’re just — we’re feminists. I think, although for years in the past, it hasn’t been intersectional but I think that is what we’re trying to put at the front and saying this is what it is and this is how we’re going to approach it.
Anh: I really like that, yeah. We do put it- you know, the term, intersectional, before feminism or environmentalism, but I do really think that it should be implicit and not have to be something that we need to clarify.
Sophia: Especially when it comes to feminism because the feminist movement as most of us know it today, was built by and for white women, so I think as soon as feminism has succeeded in its mission, we shouldn’t have to say intersectional anymore. Like you said, it should be implicit. Same with environmentalism. I feel like it’s been so easy for so many people to not realize the implications of environmental advocacy and how that disproportionately affects those on the margins.
Q: Before we head into our final questions for the day, I’d like to ask you about your recent articles and have you expand on them a bit more. In “The Cheap, the Trendy, and the Secrets They Hide,” Sophia discusses fast fashion, its impacts, and the major criticism that it has received. Like you said in your article, sustainability is not equitable for everyone, which is why people have turned to thrifting. However, with the increasing popularity of thrifting, what are your thoughts on the issue of gentrification in relation to this?
Sophia: Ooh, that’s a good question. I love thrifting. It’s one of my favorite things to do, but I have been grappling with this question. Is it fair for me to experience this [thrifting] while still having a significant amount of privilege in every facet of my life, which I’m incredibly grateful for. Is this something that is fair for me to do? Am I taking opportunities away from people who need it? How do I balance this? I think I mentioned in my article how shopping sustainably from big brands like Reformation can be super expensive, and you pay for quality and fair trade, but you also pay high amounts of money. That’s not obtainable, and I know for me personally, I try to buy all of my clothes second-hand, unless it’s unavailable because I know that that’s how I can minimize my impact on the environment. But, to be honest, I don’t know. I’m still struggling with the question of how do we prevent the gentrification of thrifting, how does it not become mainstream in the sense that it becomes a hobby over a necessity… I don’t know, it’s a difficult question that I’m still trying to answer myself.
Anh: I think gentrification as a topic in general is very hard to really pick a side because both sides are — they have good arguments on both sides, and it’s really hard to debate the pros and cons of gentrification, especially in relation to thrifting. I honestly think if I was asked that question, as well, because I know this question was pretty hard to answer, I really do think I would’ve also said I’m not quite sure. Sustainability is a whole movement that we just try our best and if you have the means to shop sustainably, then obviously, I would encourage people to do so. Then again, if you can’t, there are so many other ways and I just think it’s important that we acknowledge even if we do thrift more often now, if you love it or if it’s become more popular and you want to take part in it, I think it’s important to recognize why people thrift in the first place.
Keneeshah: It’s really important to just try your best to be honest. I think with sustainability — it can cause a little paranoia sometimes, where, like, am I doing the right thing? Have I done this right or am I doing too much? I think just trying to do your best in any way that you can and having the good intentions of trying to do the best for the planet [is all you can do]. I think sometimes how I do it is, okay, these are the seasons that we have, I need some staples for this season, this season, and this season. Then, sometimes I’ll have to restrict myself from getting more staples, but as long as I do have staples in every season, I feel like I’m good enough for that.
Sophia: I think that sustainability online has become almost a toxic community, like, “You’re not doing enough!” “You’re doing too much!” “You’re doing the wrong thing!” It can be very finger-pointy for lack of a better term. Even myself, I get caught up in the paranoia of environmental vegetarianism. I haven’t eaten meat for a year and a half, and even still, I’m like, “Oh, I’m eating too many plants — I’m taking it away from people that need it…” because I feel like I’m so in my head about am I doing too much, am I doing enough, and it can become very toxic. I think there’s a lot of shame that can be added to the conversation like, “Oh, you shop fast fashion?” without knowing someone’s story and not knowing what else they’re doing. Like Keneeshah said, I think we all have to try our best, and it can be okay if someone’s best isn’t the same as yours because that’s their story, it’s not yours.
Anh: The shame is definitely one thing that I — well — I feel like, especially here in America, there’s this stereotype almost, of the perfect sustainable person, and I think people try so hard now because that stereotype has been projected so much. I think people really try to fit that when, in reality, we can all just try our best because no one is going to be able to fit that stereotype perfectly. I know personally, in the past, I’ve been like, “Oh I’ve shopped at fast fashion before,” but now I think my version of trying my best is just to limit my consumerism and to move on with what I have instead of buying more.
Keneeshah: Sophia and I have talked about how there’s a competition now online of who’s doing the best or who’s the most woke or who’s the most aware, and I think it’s really hard when you see so many people trying to do so much at the same time because you have to step back and see it as a personal goal, as how I want to live my life and do better for the environment, or for myself.
Sophia: I think, just building off of that, a lot of us, myself included, need to step back and go, “Why do I care about this? I reposted this because this person reposted this, but what does this mean to me? How can I become a better advocate?” As Keneeshah said, it’s become a competition of wokeness, who’s the most sustainable, who’s the best advocate, etc, fill in the blank. It’s the best that you can do for you right now.
Q: Are there any topics that GenNow would like to focus on? Are there any future projects that you are willing to share just a little bit about? What aspects of advocacy would you like to focus on now and in the future?
Keneeshah: We have so many good topics and points that our writers have brought up to us that we’d love to publish. One that we’re talking about recently is about ICE detainments and how that has effects, Oregon, where one of our writers is from, and the rest of the U.S. We also were talking about how community service has affected the school system and why they encourage it, how the school system was built, and all those sorts of things. For projects, we would love to expand more on mentorship and empowerment, we’ve set up some takeovers on our account from inspiring youth who are doing great things from loss to success to building their own selves and personal growth, I think that that’s amazing to see. Just putting that on our platform and showing other youth that you don’t have to do this essentially, but this is how growth is, and this is how you can project yourself in this world, or just empower them to do better, want to have more for their life. I know many times I’ve seen many people on other takeovers, and I’ve kind of had to look back and reflect on and be like, “Wow, these people are doing so much great stuff” where it hasn’t put me to the point where I want to do the same as them, but I’ve been empowered and it’s put something in me to do something.
Sophia: Just going off of what Keneeshah said, we also really want to strive to have more connection between our team and all of our platforms, so we’ve been brainstorming ideas for webinars or presentations on going beyond social media in your advocacy, like making tangible change where we can. Everything is very abstract right now. Our team is still young, we’re getting a lot of ideas out on the table, but I think we’re going to stay the course and see what happens
Keneeshah: I think we strive for an emphasis on personal leadership in addition to leadership in the world that’s around you. Being aware of the issues that we put out has been a great asset to leadership in your own life and growth. Being aware of so many things in the past six months has helped me grow in so many ways that I couldn’t even imagine. And, you can’t be a leader for others if you’re not a leader in your own life that you want to take charge in.
Anh : I really look forward to seeing your work, and I’m so glad that I got to meet such lovely people, thanks to my [amazing] outreach coordinator [Han Mai] who reached out to y’all to schedule this interview. This was a really great conversation. I really enjoy talking to new people, especially people who have — I mean, you guys founded this yourselves, and so I think it’s really admirable. I can’t wait to see what you guys do in the future. Our organization will definitely be keeping up with y’all. Thank you so much for doing this interview with me!
Keneeshah: Thank you for talking to us! It’s been great having a conversation and putting our thoughts and ideas and having someone else to bounce those thoughts back at.
Sophia: Yeah, it’s been a really great conversation. It was so nice to meet you!