What Happens When Young People are Centered in Political Activism?

From the establishment of the Black Panther Party at Merritt College in 1966 to the recent March For Our Lives activism displayed by the Parkland students, youth activism serves as an important tool for political change. Young people participating in social change leads to new perspectives gaining traction, as well as new models for political organizing. However, it is important to take a broader historical view on youth activism to ensure that youth-led movements maintain momentum and remain grounded in tangible change.

During the “Policy Engagement and Political Activism” panel at the Millennial Public Policy Symposium in April, Millennial Public Policy Fellows Christian Hosam and Aaron Noffke were in conversation with Marcia Chatelain, a professor and historian at Georgetown University and a New America national fellow, and Joseph Green, a nationally recognized poet and director of youth programs for Split This Rock, to discuss how political organizations could serve and empower young people.

From the LA riots of the early 90s to today’s Black Lives Matter movement, young people’s experiences continue to shape discussions and policies on race, income, and inequality in America.

Noffke framed the conversation by emphasizing the impact of lived experience on social movements, stating “rather than approach the concept of youth activism as an inherently progressive or transformative force, it is perhaps more valuable to think of young people as a cohort shaped by laws, institutions, and political events that have transpired in their lifetimes.” From the LA riots of the early 90s to today’s Black Lives Matter movement, young people’s experiences continue to shape discussions and policies on race, income, and inequality in America.

Centering young people in political activism comes with opportunities and challenges, moving from lived experience to action requires education on social movements as well as a platform to market and leverage ideas. Chatelain noted how people today put faith in sponsors, like private corporations or institutions like the church, so much that often when communities fail to meet their own needs they start to blame the community, and not a larger structural or institutional failure. This idea limits the amount of individual agency young people think they can take. Green added that youth activism is most successful when young people can create a space for themselves to push continuously for the change they care about, even without institutional permission.

To better serve the political education of young people, older generations must lead by example, broadcast better decisions by explaining their reasoning, and change ideas of what security means in terms of finances, success, and vulnerability in spaces.

Hosam pointed out that the financial aspirations, rather than foundations, that young people have lead to different approaches to political activism in determining what areas of change might be the most interesting, impactful, and timely. Because of this financial insecurity, seemingly non-political factors, like access to secure housing, lead young people to engage with political activism because of the individual impact these experiences have had on their lives. Chatelain noted the importance of acknowledging this financial insecurity as a generational divide, and warns against turning social change into a leisure class activity. In order for youth activism to have an impact, people must move beyond applauding young people’s energy and initiative to listening to their concerns, educating themselves on the historical political landscape, and recognizing their position in a broader social progressive movement. Green found that in order to reignite a historically rooted campaign, like Dr. King’s Poor People’s Campaign, then “it has to be reinvigorated with the problems, and the issues, and the blood of the people who are trying to deal with the issues that are happening to them right now.”

In that sense, youth-led movements should be understood as both deeply personal and community driven actions, as well as historically rooted and influenced. To better serve the political education of young people, older generations must lead by example, broadcast better decisions by explaining their reasoning, and change ideas of what security means in terms of finances, success, and vulnerability in spaces. By allowing youth to take initiative not only in leading movements but also determining and then fighting for the causes that affect them most, historically impacted issues can continue to gain traction.