The Hip-Hop Generation Fights Back: Youth, Activism and Post-Civil Rights Politics

6. Big Shoes to Fill: Activism Past and Present

 153  6 BIG SHOES TO FILL Activism Past and Present The youth at Teen Justice and Multicultural Alliance participated in social change in a number of ways: through the Youth Center collaborative, anti-oppression workshops, hip-hop culture, and interactive theater. In this chapter, I explore these activities in relationship to popular and academic definitions of activism. Specifically, I ask if these activities, values, tools, and identities that the youth have created indeed constitute activism as it is defined in popular and academic discourse . Additionally, I examine the idealized cultural image of activism , and ask how this image informs youths’ definitions of activism. There are indeed repertoires of activism that have emerged from the civil rights movements and charismatic leadership. These repertoires shape the overall understanding of activism, which is often linked to large social movements. Participants at TJ and MA are uniquely influenced by the idealized cultural image of activism because they have grown up in Oakland, California. The rich, political history of Oakland has shaped youths of color’s political opportunities as well as their understanding of their roles in social change. As other scholars have suggested, community ties and a shared sense of identity are crucial to participation in social movement activism.1 In this chapter, I explore how youth build upon the idealized cultural image in their definitions of organizing work at TJ and MA and their understandings of activism. Some youth differentiate themselves from these idealized images while still defining themselves as activists. For instance, when I asked Achilles if he thought of himself as an activist, he said, “I am more of your activist like ‘well what do you think about it, do you think it’s right?’ I am not like your ACT  154  Big Shoes to Fill UP activist, or anything.” Here, he suggests he is indeed an activist, but he disidentifies with the strategies and tactics of such organizations as ACT UP. Other youth, particularly at TJ, incorporated the idealized image of activism into their identities as activists. I also discuss how both approaches to activism can co-exist in the practices and consciousness of the youth in these organizations. Based on the youths’ definitions, I offer a critique of dominant popular and academic understandings of activism and social change, carving out a clearer definition of youth activism post–civil rights. Where is the New Youth Movement? Although California has a number of youth empowerment organizations in the Bay Area and throughout the state, there was no direct mention by the staff of the organizations I examined of any larger youth movement. Moreover, during my research neither organization worked in collaboration with any other youth empowerment organizations in Oakland.2 Under these circumstances, I began to question how the youth in the study perceived themselves in relationship to a larger youth movement. Previous social movements, such as the civil rights movement, involved coalitions of various social movement organizations. For instance, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) worked on similar civil-rights issues, predominantly on ending racist voting laws toward Blacks. In this study, TJ advocated community organizing against social injustice at the institutional level, and MA concentrated on “healing the hurts” of a community by examining how internalized racism, sexism, and homophobia shaped young people’s lives. The goals of the organizations provided youth with the tools to change their communities. Still, there was no mention of activism in the missions, vision, or handouts for the organizations. I was confronted directly with the question of how youth activists understand their activities in relationship to previous social movements on a field trip with TJ. Throughout the eighteen months  155  Big Shoes to Fill I worked with the group, TJ included tactics of older activists and used long-standing organizing tactics in their organizational events. The youth made field trips to see various civil-rights leaders speak in the area, including Yuri Kochiyama, a Japanese-American civil rights activist. On this particular day, I was asked to chaperone the youth on a Black Panther Tour of Oakland with David Hilliard, former chief of staff of the Black Panther Party. I readily accepted the offer. Like the youth, I was excited to meet a living, “famous” member of the Black Panther Party. At around 3:15...