A New Hope For An Old Dream
Words of Advice and Encouragement to the New Generation of Activists*
There is no getting around it — this last year has been awful. But one shining light amidst the darkness, despair and death was the rise of a new generation of activists. I was encouraged to see young people braving COVID and tear gas to protest racist police killings, to resist the fascist regime closing its grip on the country, and to make sure that people were able to exercise their right to vote. Here I would like to encourage them to continue their activism, and to place it in the larger context of age-old struggles.
FIGHT FOR EVERYONE, NOT JUST “YOUR” PEOPLE
I was raised in white privilege. I was also raised with what I considered a privilege — my grandparents’ stories of persecution in Europe. This included the stories, in graphic detail, of how nearly all the family they left behind there were murdered because of their “race,” and stories of those who resisted the fascism of their time, such as my cousin’s husband who helped lead the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. I call these gruesome stories a “privilege” because they taught me…
