Today we’d like to introduce you to Takia Tinsley.
Hi Takia, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
After my parents had me, they decided to relocate from Minneapolis, Minnesota and move down to Clayton County, Georgia. I grew up in the South and the youngest out of eight kids. I was blessed to have a home that both encourages me to dream and pushes me to achieve them. Ever since I was young, I’ve had a passion for helping people. Throughout grade school, I prioritized the relationships I made with both close and distant friends. Towards the end of high school, I started wondering what type of career would fit me, and coincidentally, in 2017 I was able to vote for the first time that same semester. Following the election, a mentor of mine explained how my generation was in need of individuals to rise up and lead our community toward a new vision of progress, so I began to ask myself, “Why not me and why not now?” That one conversation ignited a fire in me to not stand idly by and to help those in need.
From that day forth, I pledged to embrace my love for fostering community to better understand the systems in place and how they affect my community leading me to study political science and criminal justice in college. While at Georgia State University, I pushed myself to learn, to grow, and to lead in new ways. Throughout working Internships, political campaigns, and peer mentorship, I gained the network, knowledge, and confidence to become that leader my mentor once spoke of and became a community organizer myself. In the Height of 2020, I began leading protests, marches, town hall meetings and more in hopes of combatting the attack(s) on Black & Brown bodies. I partnered with several coalitions, most consistently The People’s Uprising, NAACP, and New Georgia Project. Today, I’m still working for the betterment of our community, and plan to run for city council within the next few years.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Smooth is the last word I would use to describe this journey! Every step forward seems to come with three steps backward. We are still in poverty, still being gunned down in the streets, and still being cheated out of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. There are so many hurdles in the road for minorities to thrive in this nation before it can truly feel like ours and thus, we’ve had no other choice but to grow a thick skin. Not only do Black and Brown communities receive discrimination and prejudice from officials in office, but from fellow community members as well. It’s my duty as an active agent of change to be the mediator between those hurt by the system and those in power of it and to make use of political and community power to guide my community into action even when they lose hope. Ignorance of resources, opportunities, and avenues to fight back is a big issue as well. Yes, your vote matters; however, we must not grow complacent there because voting is merely one out of several tools in our belt to utilize when pushing for change. I will say the biggest struggle in community organizing, for me, has always been trying to provide hope to my people while also being realistic in the journey towards that hope, to see the light at the end of the tunnel when it seems to ot exist can be at times extremely trivial, but if I wanted an easy role in creating change I could have picked an easier passion to follow.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m nobody special but what separates me from other people in my line of work is I have a bad problem with not giving up without a fight. Currently, I am the Lead Organizer for New Georgia Project’s (NGP) VIBE team. Voting Initiative for Brothers Engagement (VIBE) is focused on building power with and for Black men in Georgia by organizing them around the issues they care about to increase their civic and community participation. With NGP, I helped push Biden into action. I have also served as the Chair for the Young Atlanta Leaders division of The People’s Uprising. Through my work with them, we helped flip the Party majority in the Senate, raise the young voter turnout from 2020, host our Juneteenth Festival, Good Trouble Rides, Beauty in Colors Rally, and more. I am also very proud of the exponential increase in young voters since I began this advocacy work in Georgia; without the work of me and my peers Georgia would never have flipped from a red (republican majority leadership) to a purple (mix of Republican and Democratic Leadership) state, and now growing toward a blue (democratic) majority in the near future.
Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
You just always have to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. Every moment you have is an opportunity to build a relationship with someone new. You don’t know what you’re good at until you try! You have to be your biggest fan and your hardest critic simultaneously. Any mentor I have acquired over the years began with a simple conversation, which grew into a relationship. It is okay to not know everything but it’s not ok to stay comfortable in that ignorance. Growth must always be a part of the process.
Contact Info:
- Website: ngp.org/vibe
- Instagram: ohhitskai
- Twitter: @kai.stephon
