Fighting for Racial Justice: An Interview with DON Organizers

Fighting for Racial Justice: An Interview with DON Organizers Elena Jaramillo, Dianna Corona, and Julie Corona

Elena Jaramillo is a rising junior at Gladstone High School in Covina, California, and racially identifies as white, but ethnically identifies as Latina.

Dianna Corona is a rising junior at Carpinteria High School, Julie Corona is a rising 8th grader at Carpinteria Middle School. Both are from Carpinteria, California and identify as Mexican American. 

Tell me the story of how you got interested in becoming an activist for racial issues. 

Elena: My same-sex, female parents fought for marriage equality during the earliest years of my life, and my first experience with activism was advocating for marriage equality for my parents. I was young at the time, and I didn’t understand how monumental that truly was. As I got older, that spirit of activism manifested itself in combating racial injustices. I recognize that I have a lot of privilege and have always been the type of person who has been introverted and shy. But, more recently, I have realized that I need to step out of that dangerous space of comfortability and privilege and use my voice to help others, because I know that my voice is important. When I heard about DON on Instagram, I realized that this is exactly what I wanted to do in order to help. At my high school, 90.2% identify as Hispanic or Latino/a/x, but the majority of the books that we read are written by white authors with white characters. The idea of being anti-racist and advocating for diverse texts in the classroom is really important to me, and I’m really excited to be a part of this campaign. 

Tell me the story of when you started thinking about race and when you realized you were different from your classmates.

Dianna: Race was a concept that was first taught to us at home. My parents would tell us: treat everyone you meet equally regardless of their religion, race, or other aspect. Additionally, in school settings, our teachers taught us to treat everyone with kindness no matter their skin color. 

I realized I was different from my classmates at a very young age. I arrived in kindergarten only speaking Spanish. I immediately knew that I was different from everyone, because I had to go to different English classes, and I was bilingual. However, once I got better at speaking English, people started to assume that I was white, not Mexican, because my skin is so pale. When I spoke Spanish, people would be surprised and say things like, “oh my gosh, you speak Spanish well, but you're so white!” 

Julie: For me, it started in middle school when I would speak Spanish, and people would so shocked and say: wow, you’re Mexican? In addition, the classes where we had to learn more English were a little hard.

Tell me about how your views on race have changed over time.

Dianna: When we (Dianna and Julie) were younger, we didn’t understand the whole concept of race, and the idea instilled by our family was to treat everyone nicely and not to stereotype other people. Over time, as we grew older and started to see racism on the news and in our own community, our perspectives on race changed. We’re from a small town and it’s a sad reality, but you begin to realize that racism exists within your community, and has always been here.

Elena: In the past, I felt like there was a sort of culture of “silence” where I would never explicitly express oppressive or racist behavior, but I would still be afraid of speaking out against the kids who said the n-word or the f-word. I would never say these racial and homophobic slurs, but I have never stood up for others, and I want to get out of that habit. I want to stand up for others and call out people who are racist. Now, I have learned to get out of that behavior and to stop being silent.  

Fighting for Racial Justice: An Interview with DON Organizers Joshua Valadez and Kaneesha Goyal

Joshua Valadez is a rising senior at Summit High School in Fontana, California, and identifies as Mexican American.
Kaneesha Goyal is a rising senior at Oakmont High School in Roseville, California, and identifies as Indian American. 

Tell me the story of how you got interested in becoming an activist for racial issues.

Joshua: I really started becoming involved in activism after the 2016 election, but I’ve wanted to be a politician ever since I was 12 or 13 years old. One of my core values is creating equality and equity for everyone, as no one deserves to be mistreated. Especially when it comes to my school district in Fontana, we learned about Cesar Chavez, but not much about the Chicanx movement. The only reason why I was able to learn more about the Chicanx movement was through a movie that my grandma showed me, and I really want to make sure people’s cultures are being represented in their schools. 

Kaneesha: As a person of color, I have witnessed racial issues and discrimination first hand. However, at first, I didn’t feel like I was equipped to be an activist. But when the Black Lives Matter movement happened, I became so angry at the injustices I was witnessing, I just thought: I have to do something. So, I talked to a couple of my friends, and they talked to some of their friends, and through word of mouth we were able to organize a march of about 70 people in our conservative town. There is so much work that needs to be done in regards to unraveling systemic racism, and I feel like marches inspire people and make them feel hopeful that change can be accomplished. It was truly an amazing experience. 

Tell me the story of when you started thinking about race.

Kaneesha: I grew up in India, and immediately after moving to the U.S., the concept of race became a huge part of my day-to-day experience. I endured many microaggressions, including people making fun of the ethnic food that I was eating, saying that “I look and sound so exotic”, or asking me if “people in India had houses”. The concept of being racially different from my white peers was something that I just HAD to deal with as a person of color. 

Tell me about how your views on race have changed over time.

Kaneesha: When I first moved to the U.S., my perspective on race was more on an individual level and dealt with the way people would treat me. However, the more I educated myself, the more I realized how ingrained racial issues are within our society and the level of systemic racism that exists in the U.S. I soon became very passionate about criminal justice reform, especially mass incarceration and the mistreatment of Black and brown folks. The more I learned about the issues within the U.S., the more I understood how deeply entrenched race is in this country. 

Anything else you would like to add?

Joshua: After the deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, many people’s eyes were opened about the reality of racism in America. These events solidified my decision about getting more involved in racial justice, and eventually becoming a politician. When my district was looking for people to help with diversifying the curriculum, I jumped right in.