“I wish someone told me earlier that my voice mattered:” Interview with Navraj Singh
The original interviews I did for Youth to Power were longer than could fit in my book, but I wanted to share the valuable information with you all. These interviews will be up online as a permanent, free resource for people, young people in particular, looking for inspiration.
— Jamie Margolin
Navraj Singh (he/him), 17, is an activist for youth inclusion in politics and advocacy, and works with Mobilizing Youth Project and Women’s March Youth Empower.
Jamie Margolin: How did you become an activist?
Navraj: It all really started after the midterm elections of 2018: I saw so many young people getting into politics and becoming the forefront of movements. Before this, I thought I was too young to make a difference, but after seeing that boom in youth activism, I realized that I still could get involved. I finally decided I was just going to get on the ground and do the work.
My first experience was at the school level — walkout for gun violence prevention. I also organized a Town Hall for Our Lives in my state of Virginia, where we held politicians accountable. Got media attention and community-wide attention.
My friends I organized [and] kept the traction going. In our experiences being young organizers, we realized that one of the major challenges of being a young organizer is the difficulty to get resources.
So once my friends and I gained resources, we started an organization called the Mobilizing Youth Project, which gave young people networks and resources to start their activism — things that we didn’t have.
We recruit young people in the area and train them on how to organize and do advocacy-type events. We also organize around different issues and help youth engage civically. The Mobilizing Youth Project puts together youth volunteer collectives for local political campaigns. Everyone who volunteers at the campaign office is always older or a senior citizen, so we do internship recruitment and youth volunteer collectives to have youth have their voices in campaigns. It’s really intimidating when you walk into the campaign office and are the only young person there — it’s much easier to get young people enthusiastic about political activism if they are there volunteering with their friends.
I am also a part of Women’s March Youth EMPOWER, which is my first experience being a member of a national organization. Through that I’ve been able to get so many more tools and grow the team of organizers I work with.
Most recently, I was one of the organizers of the 2019 National Youth Climate Strike in DC and Virginia because a friend of mine was talking about it and asked me if I wanted to help. I didn’t have experience in climate activism until then, but I took the leap of faith and jumped in!
What guides you in your activism?
I’d say being a Sikh American guides me, because my family’s faith has values that root me in what I am fighting for. Sikhi is a religion based in northern India and I was raised a Sikh all my life. Some of the main values of Sikhi include advocating for those who can’t advocate for themselves, the poor, the disadvantaged, and being brave enough to step out of the comfort zone and cause a ruckus and be a warrior and be the light in the darkness. Seva — a Sikh value — selfless service, is the value that I most live by; that it what grounds and focuses my work. If I see a problem in the world that I need to address, I need to speak out and try my best to make any change that I can, even though it’s big or small.
What is your strategy for creating change?
The common theme among all is starting small. Start at the community level, because that’s where you can make the most impact. [The] place you know the best, [the] place you understand issues and people.
I don’t think we should demand small incremental change. I think we should be doing radical sweeping change, but that happens at the community level.
How do you balance being an activist and being a student?
Student-activist balance? Honestly, it doesn’t exist. Please give me the number of someone who has figured it out, because I sure haven’t! You have to see ultimately what has more value.
Yes, education is a privilege not to take for granted. But at the same time… do you need an A+ or a solution to gun violence and climate change? Clearly my life and life on Earth means more than a grade on paper. So step back a little and see what needs to be tackled.
Also, you should never feel guilty for prioritizing school over your work, because you are still a student and our world still requires us to do school. If you have to take a week off of your activism to catch up on school and get your grades up, that’s fine!
What are your tips for youth with immigrant parents? As someone with an immigrant parent myself, I realize the dynamic and culture around activism is much different then with kids of parents born in the United States. Especially when it comes to immigrants of color like my mother and your parents, the pressure and focus is always on school and excelling academically. How do you work around that?
My parents are both immigrants from India, so I am a first generation American. My experience was not as difficult as I thought it would be. At first, my mom wouldn’t even let me do clubs or extracurriculars, let alone organize. So I had to ease my parents into it. I started doing smaller things outside of school and still keep my grades up. Little by little I showed my mom that I could follow my passion for organizing and still keep my grades up.
What allowed my parents, to this day, to let me continue doing my activism is the fact that I keep my good grades. So start small with immigrant or strict parents. Once they realize the impact and importance of your work, they (usually) start to ease up.
What is something you wish you knew when you first started your activism journey?
I wish someone told me earlier that my voice mattered. It’s louder than you think it is. You can make a much larger change than you could ever imagine, but you just have to start. You just have to jump in.
