Activism in the 21st Century
Idalin Bobe is an educator, activist, and technologist who founded Tech Activist, an organization that provides technological supplies and education to working class youth and activists. She has recently been featured on the Organeyez Podcast, where she explains how technology is crucial in education, and that social justice movements need to adapt to the 21st century.
Idalin grew up in the Badlands, Philadelphia, a community that was greatly affected by the crack epidemic of the 80s and 90s. This background highlights police brutality, poverty, and most importantly, a resilient community as a large part of Idalin’s childhood. Her high school employed more police officers than textbooks, and students were handcuffed and arrested for minute offenses like writing on the desk and missing 6am detention for tardiness. This was clearly not an environment where kids could thrive and it was only after school that Idalin was given opportunities to learn academically. Community leaders uplifted her out of dreadful circumstances by encouraging her to go to community college. It was during college that she was connected to technology and utilized the available information to self educate and become a top student.. Her community’s efforts to elevate her have helped push her into the progressive activist role she takes on today.
This role brought Idalin to the Ferguson Uprising, and her experiences there bring understanding to an event that many deemed chaotic. She explains how technology was used against the activists, proving that modern movements need to improve their own technological know-how in order to prosper in the 21st century. Her dedication to solving this problem shines through her work with Tech Activist and its focus on two different phases.
Phase I focuses on the socio and economic relationships technology has with society. Idalin brings this up throughout the podcast, like when she compares mass incarceration to the “digital prison” of today. She explains that people within impoverished communities are taught to use tech to seek information on things like the Kardashians or how to twerk rather than movements, practical skills, and educational growth. Through workshops and training leaders Idalin is changing the way working class communities utilize technology.
Phase II of her organizationbrings technical skills and supplies into the hands of young progressive activists. This is inspired by the realization she came to in Ferguson, that “[The movement] was not a civil rights 1960s kind of movement. This was the 21st century and tech was being used in the movement not for good reasons…A lot of activists didn’t know what tools they should be using or how they could be using tools…to protect the work that they were doing.” Through training and supplying laptops Idalin is preparing activists to protect their information and better tell the story of their movements, giving their movements the ability to better strive in our world today.
Hearing Idalin speak is an energizing experience as she sets a brilliant example of what leadership in social movements should look like. She brings insight to how progressive activists can embrace technology to further their own movements. Her dedication to improving society is an example I want to follow.
You can find the episodes at the links below:
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-159923473-385042534/idalin-bobe
Google Play: https://play.google.com/music/m/Dq5orifsnkacqd4p4hhzbv6pksa?t=Idalin_Bobe_a_Technologist_Providing_Tech_Trainings_For_Activists-The_Organeyez_Podcast
Itunes/Apple Podcasts: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-organeyez-podcast/id1437034637
