Six lessons of youth activism

based on who you

are what you’ve experienced and what you

value

do the systems we exist in our schools

our health care

our politics reflect you

were they built for you

based on who you are what you’ve

experienced

and what you value have the issues of

injustice before us

felt insurmountable

i co-lead a program called public

achievement with 250 young people a year

offering a framework for youth to

identify investigate

and act on issues of injustice connected

to their identities

experiences and values

these young people take it into their

own hands to not only challenge

the structures and systems that keep so

many of us

from our own sense of possibility but

also to take loving action

action that reminds all of us that what

once seemed impossible

can exist and become a part of us

there are six lessons from youth

activism and the agency that it is

that i believe if we were all tapping

into in our own lives

our own circumstances our humanity

would be better off we must be able to

look within

and make these kinds of changes

ourselves in order to collectively

transform the world

into the ways that we dream it could be

the first lesson don’t wait for

permission to act

i remind our students that there is no

hierarchy to accessing change

you need not be elected graduated

crowned or ordained

in order to start making change in your

own life and in your own communities

like dorothy cotton’s song during the

civil rights movement maintains

we are the ones we’ve been waiting for

you see we aren’t teaching young people

how to be powerful

we’re facilitating a power that already

exists together

we are co-creating and re-imagining our

circumstances

where change and liberation are possible

for our communities a student once said

to me

i just had someone refer to me as an

accidental activist

in our work we know that people rarely

act accidentally

many act with intent and too often don’t

measure the impact

many have acted to design and resign us

to systems and structures

that are now requiring young people to

march and organize

yet again we act

because none of this was by accident

we must each be willing to not only

critique injustices

but also inspire to take action on them

even if we didn’t create the problems

with our own hands doesn’t mean that we

don’t have an awesome

but necessary responsibility to not only

make the world

better for those who come after us but

also to respond

to this urgent moment of now

being passive is no longer an option for

any future

that really belongs to all of us

the second lesson diversity is our

greatest power

and our greatest hope the breadth of

topics i see young people working on

immigration mental health climate crisis

poverty

gun violence access to higher education

they are diverse because a diverse group

of people are doing the work

students are encouraged to center not

silence their personal histories

in order to make sense of the world

around them and in order to address

these intersectional issues that we

currently face

in trinidad and tobago my sister and i

grew up going to the masjid at eid

lighting diaz at diwali playing drums at

kwanzaa

all while getting reprimanded weekly

mostly me

by a nun at our catholic primary school

for talking too much

our ancestors were indigenous migrant

indentured servants

enslaved and a lover to the landowner

alike

east indian west indian carib scottish

chinese afro-caribbean

we came from a mother and grandparents

who told us you can be

anything because you already are so many

things

i shared this with a student once after

they witnessed someone in a position of

power at their school

ask me what are you

the student who was working at the

intersection of immigration and racism

said in response to me so it’s true that

what this country has told you you are

is never all you have to be

as someone whose diversity and

intersectional identities stem

from ancestors who survived the spanish

and commander system

the transatlantic slave trade and

entered servitude

that 500 years of generational trauma

and generational resilience is what

allows me

to be standing here before you today

able to identify

shine light on and address the wounds of

racism

and anti-black racism and just how

pervasive they

are in our society

tolerating racism as though it’s

accepting of all

thought although it’s accepting of

diverse points of view

is a falsehood tolerating racism

perpetuates racism and it does the exact

opposite at actualizing any sense of

belonging

for our diverse and intersectional

communities

the third lesson our change is

strengthened

in community i’ve yet to work with a

young person whose activism wasn’t

primarily rooted

in being a child grandchild sibling

mentee or neighbor it’s these people

and these relationships who star in our

very first stories

who teach us about the things that we’re

passionate about and the issues we’re

willing to stand up and fight for

who remind us that when we show up and

do the work

it is beyond the individual and for the

collective

our communities are beloved they nurture

us

and they hold us accountable

congresswoman ayanna presley said

as you attempted to forget who you are

you have to be surrounded by people

a community who reminds and emboldens

you to lead uniquely

and authentically exactly as you are

the fourth lesson your potential is

always greater than the problem

when we engage young people at the

beginning of our process

we invite them to radically imagine what

the world should look like

and then together we build steps on what

we can do

to arrive there each of us have

inherent knowledge and inherent power

inside of us

from our dna from generations long

before us

and our roots and our oral histories and

our lived realities

we have inherent power and inherent

knowledge that institutions and

structures

weren’t yet built to teach us we each

have an innate capacity

to do and be even more than the thing

or the status quo that is facing us

tony morrison said as you enter

positions of trust and power

dream a little before you think

education is not typically a liberatory

space

programs like public achievement exist

because the system in place

is not doing the work as any of us are

positioned to respond to issues that are

bigger than ourselves

we have to make sure that we aren’t just

trying to compensate for a broken system

but that our actions work to change it

placing band-aid solutions on things

like our schools our healthcare our

politics

in order to achieve a nearby or easier

outcome

is not committing to the vision of what

the world should be

and it’s not committing to long-term

change

no one can yet tell you how to be great

this country and our world our history

is rooted in recognizing that we have

the potential to be far better

than our worst but our history is also

not necessarily behind us

and shows we have quite a ways to go

together

equity dignity and justice have yet to

be actualized

we must not fare our capacity to

radically reimagine our world

because the foundation that we currently

stand on has still allowed for this

status quo

where possibilities are cut short and

taken

individually and collectively we have to

remember that we are more limitless

than we are limited but our potential

that is becoming

is always greater than the problem or

the status quo that is before

us i am you are

our students are so powerful

and we are beings of possibility and

often

this can be guided by something we

cannot see

our purpose our ancestors

as you think lovingly of the people you

descended from

know that we are ascending because of

the love and resilience they gave us

the fifth lesson tension creates change

not everything that is faced can be

changed but nothing

can be changed until it’s faced james

baldwin

activism change making you being fired

up

exists because there is tension between

your personal narrative

the wholeness of you and your

community’s existence

and the status quo these tensions are

uncomfortable

they cause deep societal harm but they

also offer

direct

through possibilities these tensions we

can more clearly imagine what our rules

could look like

through addressing these tensions we can

better arrive at justice

but we have to be willing to face them

waiting until tension becomes crisis

means that we’ve waited too long

we all have to be willing to make change

even as we feel uncomfortable

for all people to not only have their

breath but to breathe

to not only be able to lead movements in

order to free themselves of shackles

but to be able to move and dance

we are all here we exist

yet and our visibility

makes us undeniable

lastly the sixth lesson

investigate your identities experiences

and values

tell your story my first year out of

college

a single day was spent in part with

fourth and fifth grade

african-american and black students

doing the work that we do

but in minnesota one young woman

when i approached and asked her why did

she do public achievement

planted firmly in her feet lifted her

chin and told me proudly

that public achievement allowed her to

achieve herself

in public working on increasing access

to inhalers

because more students and families in

her community had severe asthma

than they did have access to health

insurance

part two of this day i sat in a glaring

bright room

in a circle in the presence of story

with 35 incarcerated men

mostly men of color for hours they share

parts of who they are

what pain they’ve had to heal inside

what they value

and what they hope to do with knowing

how to name all of this

the same work that we do was an action

there as well

so many of the men could not believe

that young people were being engaged

with a willingness

to not disregard the students identities

and stories at the door

but to center them many shared of not

being seen

intervened or supported when they were

that age of not being

seen as having value or promise in an

educational system

that continues to fail to tell the

pledge of communities of color

and at the very least not being told of

the structures around them

not built to serve them but to

eventually confine them

this moment felt like it could have been

a cookout

a gathering with my friends and family

our classroom

but instead we were able to leave

and these men required to stay

asking us to please share their stories

with the young people

when i returned home from this trip i

wrapped my arms around my body

i held myself and i cried

who am i to hold these stories

i realized i had yet to stand in the

truth of my own

i had some work to do

to achieve our full selves in public

we have to be able to tell about the

experiences that have shaped us

with authority and power and without

shame

sharing your story and holding someone

else’s story

has the capacity to move us from

isolation to solidarity

from structures of power over to power

with

and power within sharing your story

and holding someone else’s story is a

great responsibility

and one that offers our world a better

chance

the rest of the dorothy cotton song we

are the ones we’ve been waiting for

continues on to say

nobody else

nobody else

nobody else is going to rescue us

history books don’t remind us of our

resilience and brilliance

the resilience and brilliance that has

held democracy accountable

from generation to generation

old forms of leadership don’t remind us

that we don’t need saving

but we do need to do the work

chances are if you were able to answer

yes

to my first question tonight there’s a

possibility that you can move through

life

without having to confront the realities

of an ongoing list of marginalizations

and systemic oppressions that so many

young activists do

the black indigenous people of color

folks with disabilities

immigrants undocumented folks lgbtq plus

folks and so many others do

but you must these tensions cost more

than not getting a job being late to an

event

or maybe being unfollowed on your social

media

they endanger our very existence

and they endanger the fabric of our

collective humanity

social change can too often be misplaced

as this

or those people’s problem or too radical

of a vision

especially during election years

but every single person has a lot to

gain from change

because no matter what we all benefit

from not learning

and surviving in a racist homophobic

misogynistic

patriarchal sexist and fatally

unhealthy society but thriving

in a just healing and equitable one

and until it’s achieved so long as some

of us can breathe freely in the same

atmosphere that harms or kills another

these problems really do belong to all

of us

you can begin by setting aside your own

self-doubt

and not waiting on yourself by not only

holding criticism

but inspired to take necessary action

by investing and learning about your

friends your family

your community your ancestors by tapping

into all of the parts that make you

you and extending that dignity to others

intersectional identities too

by not getting caught in the microcosm

of your daily life

and remembering that you are part of

something bigger

and when tension is present ask what are

you here to teach me

and see what kind of change takes place

and learn how to tell your story and

disallow

anyone else to write it for you

john lewis said you have to tell the

whole truth

the good and the bad maybe some things

that make some people

uncomfortable

we do in fact stand on the shoulders of

giants

i know my ancestors made room for me to

thrive

but we also stand pressured under the

weight of policies

and structures designed largely by small

hearts

and minds

when i wrote this talk our communities

hadn’t yet confronted kovid 19.

when i wrote this talk rihanna taylor

ahmad arberry tony mcdade and george

floyd

still had their breath but sandra bland

philando castile

tatiana jefferson and elijah mcclain

and about 2 000 other black lives since

2013

that we know of did not

as a result of white supremacy and

police violence

the roots of injustice are so pervasive

and so many of our daily lives and they

were here

long before this health and racism

crisis

but these particular crises include and

our environmental crisis

are mobilizing more and more of us to

see what’s necessary to change

and just how high the stakes are

to the young people this is the

continued

and necessary work our very agency to

act

is what holds us all accountable to

actualizing

liberty and justice for all

we are a generation making room to

thrive

and our agency is transformative

and it is love love for your ancestors

love for self and community and love for

those to come

to the young people your temple

guides our steps

you