When you organize, one of the first things you come to understand is that things aren’t as sexy as they might make it seem in the movies. You may read a book about some activist and think, “Damn, what an intense career!”, which it is in the sense that it is a lot of work, but not at all in it's pace. The moments usually highlighted-the protests, the marches, the big movements-are all very exciting, but they are often short lived. Sadly, the average joe will forget about the latest #BLM video not long after it is released. They may be outraged by it, but our attention spans only last so long, even when the issue can last for centuries. The job of the organizer is to maintain the fight in the times where no one is watching. And I have learned that the foundation of it all is strong relationships. Organizers get to know people and keep them engaged by listening, sharing, and continuously reminding them that the things happening in our communities are examples of injustice. They help them to understand that these unjust circumstances do not and should not be that way, in turn getting them to step up to the plate and change it. I was watching Netflix last night after getting home from the ACLU and on the show I was watching, the protagonist said something that made me think of organizing. Anyone can stand anything for 10 seconds. So count to ten and when that ten is up, start over. The context she was bringing it to was more about staying happy or holding your pee, but I use that philosophy every day in activism. Anyone can get 1 vote. Anyone can get 1 volunteer. After you get that one, which may take longer than ten seconds, but we are changing the limit here, you start over. If everyone does this, and there are ten of us working, that means that every cycle we are actually getting ten votes or ten volunteers. If those volunteers then join, we then have 20 votes and 20 volunteers. It is about taking things in small enough chunks to where you are never left thinking, “Well what does 1 vote mean if there are millions of people in San Diego County.” That is only your impatience. Anything that gets you all the votes in a day will just as easily lose them in a week. So at the ACLU I am not doing any sexy work. I am making sure that every conversation I have with people over the phone is genuine, I am knocking on people’s doors with information and telling them “This is where you fit into this.”, I am presenting to young people like myself in their classrooms or communities to build a new generation of warriors, and I am asking people if they happen to have a few sets of 10 seconds to spare for a good cause. This is how you organize. Even when there is no fire in the media or riots in the streets, you persist, and persistence is never like the movies. But as Fred Ross once said, “It isn’t hard to organize if you take it granule by granule, brick by brick.”
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What is this?Hi everyone! This is my junior year blog. Here you will find weekly reflections up until the completion of my junior internship. I hope you enjoy this inside look on my learning! Archives
June 2018
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