Stephanie McLamb - I can no longer not take a stand

Meet Stephanie

Stephanie grew up in a small rural area of North Carolina, until 2008 when she moved to Orlando on a theme park internship. She attended a Christian college in Georgia to be an education major and has always been drawn to people related fields.

Growing up

Growing up in a biracial family provided her a fairly unique experience. With her mother, an immigrant from Belgium, she was raised among her dad’s family, a traditional large, loud, family oriented, church oriented and food oriented black experience.

She spent much of her youth and college years in a super conservative, evangelical, somewhat diverse but predominantly white, Bible belt bubble.

While working as a student teacher pursuing her degree, she started to see cracks in the system; from the burden put on teachers to all the standardized practices, she realized she wouldn’t make it for the long haul.

The Food and Beverage Industry

Her internship in Orlando developed a love for working in the food and beverage industry. Over the last 12 years she's made a close group of friends who have become a second family to her. These friendships have made Orlando her home.

I moved to Orlando in 2008 on a theme park internship, and started working in food and beverage. Like most Orlando industry workers, what started as a short term hustle turned into a real love for the industry. I made a close group of friends who have become a second family and in the last 12 years, I have made Orlando my home.

I went to a similar conservative Christian college in Georgia, to be an education major. I've always been drawn to people related fields, "missionary work" as a teenager, nursing, teaching etc, but once we got into the semesters of actually working in the schools and student teaching, I started seeing the cracks in our education system, the burden put on teachers, the standardized everything, and knew I wouldn't make it for the long haul (God bless our teachers!)

I moved to Orlando in 2008 on a theme park internship, and started working in food and beverage. Like most Orlando industry workers, what started as a short term hustle turned into a real love for the industry. I made a close group of friends who have become a second family and in the last 12 years, I have made Orlando my home.

Stephanie admits that before all this her activism had been passive. After what happened to George Floyd, the switch was flipped. She defines it as her generations Emmett Till - the thing we all saw and just couldn't go back to regularly scheduled programming after. Talking about anything else at this point felt shallow and problematic, and for the first time in a long time, it felt the whole world was actually listening.

Stephanie decided to get active.

These last few weeks Stephanie began flooding her social media with every story she could find, I've spent far too much time spinning my wheels with other stubborn strangers in the comments sections, and I started looking for protest events to attend.

The whole thing with Mooncricket, I came across that petition in a friend's feed. I read up on the story, and to be honest the word itself, because I wasn't familiar with it. (I understand that's a big part of the owners doubling down on their stance, that they feel we've just made up something to be mad at...) For me the shock came from the fact that even though its something many of us have just learned about, the owners have decided they know now, but don't care regardless. The problems this country is facing, those roots run deeper than almost anyone cares to acknowledge. I was hoping that the owners, (who are claiming that no one is actually bothered by their sign) could see what it reads like to the people who have to walk by that storefront, now knowing.

I don't think it was that I was "inspired" to take a stand, (on any of this, not just the Mooncricket issue,) so much as I felt like I could no longer NOT take a stand.

I think what I want people to know is that it's about empathy. It's about acknowledging when things are a problem, even when they aren't a problem for you. It's about acknowledging how you might be a part of that problem, which is the hardest thing for people to face. I've lived in the small town south, and I've lived in one of the fastest growing, unified, progressive cities in the nation. I grew up in a black family, learning about our history, the struggles and the triumphs, a lot of what the history books left out, and I ran in the social circles of the small town, white evangelical people those history books were predominantly written for. I'm from a patriotic military family but also the daughter of an immigrant. I'm from a highly conservative religious background, and yet now I champion the causes for the groups who are generally most heavily ostracized by the church (LGBTQ+ allyshil, immigration reform, women's rights and autonomy, etc) So, when I read through people's comments, see the arguments of people, (good people who are knowing or unknowingly working against progress, I usually get where they are coming from, I've usually seen the world at least partially through their eyes at one point. The problem is, so many of them have never seen the world through someone else's. All of my (fairly newfound) activism is really just me trying to tell my story, or our stories, because I think it's the conversations that are important. People aren't going to change their hearts and minds because a news article or a tweet told them to, but I think they will once they start listening to and actually hearing the people they know and love.

So mostly, I'm just trying to be loud.