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