Kylie Greer · Sewanee: Black Lives Matter Oral History Project

Title

Kylie Greer (Abstract)

Interviewee/ Narrator

Kylie Greer

Interviewer

Kaila Seger

Date

November 26, 2023

Location of the Interview

Kylie’s apartment in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

Length

1 hour, 32 minutes, 9 seconds

Abstract

Kylie Greer was born on October 9th, 2003 in Nashville Tennessee. She has mainly worked in food service, namely at Tropical Smoothie Cafe and Nothing Bundt Cakes. She has also worked at a doggy daycare. She is currently studying at MTSU to get her degree in Organismal Biology and Ecology. The interview starts off gathering general information about her, talking about where she’s from, her occupation and her journey to that occupation, where she found community as a child and today, who inspires her and why, and how she experienced international cultures in her life. The interview then shifts, with Kylie discussing how she receives the news through social media such as Instagram and Twitter.

Kylie discusses her first encounter with the Black Lives Matter Movement, stating that her first encounter happened either by her dad talking about it or through Instagram. She then goes into her opinion of the Black Lives Matter Movement, stating that she believes it is very important, touching on how the system is broken, giving examples of why the system is broken. She talks about different types of violence, and what types of violence is warranted versus what violence is unwarranted. She then talks about how the Black Lives Matter Movement has had a minimal impact on her in the sense that she does not feel threatened by it, but it has helped her develop critical thinking skills. She then discusses how the Black Lives Matter Movement affected the way that she talks with her family and friends, as most of her friends have the same general opinion as her on the matter, but now that she’s moved out, she will oppose her family on their political beliefs more.

Kylie further reviews how the Black Lives Matter Movement has given her more of a consciousness and awareness for issues that expand beyond Black Lives Matter, urging her to educate herself over important issues and have intelligent discussions with other people over these issues, as well as the role of social media in being able to educate oneself. She then discusses how she sees race relations in the U.S as better than what they’ve been previously, but still not good, going into reactionary politics as a response to progress. The interview then evolves to talk more broadly about reactionary politics, and how much urgency she sees in different types and levels of reactionary politics. Getting back to specifically Black Lives Matter, she talks about how the Black Lives Matter Movement succeeded by getting the word out there even though it is still a work in progress.

She then discusses thoughts on the police and the situations that turned the spark of the movement into a flame. She moves on to discuss the future of the Black Lives Matter, stating that she feels like another big event will have to happen to draw a lot of attention back to the movement, diving into the news cycle and how having so much information at our fingertips can be both a good and bad thing. She ends the interview with a quick word on how we have to work together with every generation to achieve progress, our issues don’t die out with the rest of a generation. This interview was conducted for the Black Lives Matter Oral History Project at Sewanee, The University of the South.