Black Moms On the Front Lines Ep. 2: Kenya Slaughter Never Wanted To Be A Front-Line Worker

Yes, Girl!

ESSENCE PODCAST NETWORK

Cori Murray, Women, Yes, Arts, Music, Podcasts, Essence, Tv & Film, Society & Culture, Black Women, Celebrity, #Blackgirlmagic, Girl!, Pop Culture, Charli Penn, 509640, Essence Magazine, Cardi B, Yolanda Sangweni, Entertainment, Blackgirlmagic, Culture, Fashion & Beauty, Podcastsforwomen, Podcast

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 19 May 2020

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Yes, Girl! podcast presents, On the Frontlines - a celebration of Black women who are taking care of our families...and theirs too. These beautiful souls are more than essential, they are powerful.

Kenya Slaughter is a mother and Dollar General employee in Louisiana where she is a part of Step Up Louisiana, an organization fighting for dollar store workers and essential workers’ rights. Her New York Times op-ed “I Never Planned to Be a Front-Line Worker at Dollar General” recently caught the nation’s attention. She opened up about just how hard it is for essential workers to take care of themselves and their families and even protect themselves while they’re working. We’re deeply honored to include her in this special series, to zoom in on the stories that are making the biggest differences for all of us during this global pandemic. To learn about the work Kenya is doing with Step Up Louisiana, please visit stepuplouisiana.org.

Yes Girl Hosts: Cori Murray (@corimurray) + Charli Penn (@charlipenn)
Executive Producer: Tiffany Ashitey (@misstiffsays)
Associate Producers: Ashley J. Hobbs (@ashleylatruly) + Shantel Holder (@shadesofshan_)
Bookings: Cori Murray + Charli Penn + Tiffany Ashitey + Ashley J. Hobbs
Audio: Josh Gwynn (@regardingjosh) + Anthony Frasier (@anthonyfrasier)
Music: Gold Standard Creative (@gscdotnyc)
Designer: Imani Nuñez (@profoundly_imani)

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Yes Girl Podcast
0:14.2	Podcast presents on the front lines a celebration of black women who are taking care of our families and theirs too.
0:21.6	These beautiful souls are more than
0:23.7	essential. They are powerful.
0:27.8	Cori Murray.
0:32.0	Charlotte Penn! Hi sister! Cori Murray. Charlie Penn.
0:34.0	Hi sister, how are you doing?
0:36.0	I'm doing good, but I'm extra good because this series that we've been doing is so good because we're getting a
0:44.2	chance to hold space for all the black moms out there who are putting it on the
0:47.8	line every day for their own families for us and for hours. Last week we spoke to two incredible twin doctors
0:55.0	who are getting and keeping us well
0:57.0	and this week Charlie I'm excited for our guest this week who you found
1:01.0	Me too yes this week we have Kenya Slaughter who works for Dollar General in New Orleans, okay? And Cori, I'm excited because I found her story on the New York Times.
1:13.6	And what really struck me about it was like the detail.
1:16.4	She works long hours.
1:18.0	She has to provide her own PPE.
1:20.3	She doesn't get paid sick leave.
1:21.9	And she was offered a measly one-time $300 bonus while risking like while literally risking her life every single day because you know we're flocking to the dollar generals and all the stores but she was brave enough to share her story you know and she loves her job
1:36.4	She's an essential worker right but she didn't ask to be with all this been going on I'm just so glad that we found her because I think you know we've been talking so much about essential workers but we haven't really been a lot of people haven't been like zooming in on the individual stories and their stories and since she was sharing hers I'm so happy we were able to really dig in because she's such a dope and incredible human being and she was doing all that to raise awareness for other workers like her, which also was just so powerful.
2:05.0	And you know what really really touched me about Kenya's story and that's another layer, a very important
2:11.0	layer, is her as a mother because she has a daughter who's on the autism spectrum.
2:15.9	And hearing her talk about how she's engaging with her, who doesn't really understand what's going on because
	...

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