Ahhh Facebook, the land where minion memes, gender reveals, and Dhar Man reign supreme. Good ol’ Zuckerberg has truly reinvented the idea of social connection - you can see your aunt every time she gets a haircut or watch the coworker you vaguely know open birthday presents. Another thing that’s popular on Facebook are “hot takes”. Your mom’s friend can offer her professional opinion on the pandemic, and your second cousin can shed insight on the benefits of capitalism. Hot takes don’t require you to have any actual experience or facts - they just have to be formulated like so, “Now I don’t usually get political” insert a political thing here, add a few emojis, and finish it off with “I don’t expect anyone to agree with me, I just wanted to say my piece” and you’ve got yourself a hot take.

Due to Covid-19, Thanksgiving this year may look a little different compared to previous years. While it is important to reconnect with family and friends during the holiday season, it is even more important that we modify holiday traditions to keep friends, families, and communities healthy and safe. The CDC highly encourages celebrating virtually, as in-person celebrations should only occur between family members who are currently living in the same household.

2013, the year we got “We Can’t Stop” by Miley Cyrus, and when voting rights took a crippling blow at the hands of the Supreme Court. The 5-4 Shelby v Holder decision struck down section 5 of the Voter Rights Act. A section that said that any new elections laws in certain flagged jurisdictions had to first be reviewed in order to ensure they were not tools of voter suppression. The late Justice Ginsburg dissented to Shelby’s ruling, writing that declaring the review of laws unconsittuional because there was no evidence of discrimination, as a result of the very same section in the Voter Rights Act, “is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.” A flurry of laws followed, ones that had racist implications and severely wounded our democracy.

Victoria: Did you feel represented by the books you read? If yes, was it a positive/accurate representation?

Cameron: Holistically, no. I’d say about 90% of my high school literary experience was based on books by White authors.

Reach out to your teachers, administrators, school librarians, etc about this proposal and ask if they’re willing to back it! Ask for feedback on how to best work with your school board/school administration on getting this mandate passed. Educators have a lot of in-depth experience working with these types of policies and can give you specific guidance on how to be effective in your efforts.

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.

Ella Baker (1903-1986) was born in Norfolk, Virginia, and became an important African-American civil rights and human rights activist. Although she mostly worked behind-the-scenes, she assisted many prominent figures such as WEB Dubois, Thurgood Marshall, Martin Luther King Jr., and A. Philip Randolph. She mentored and advised several young, emerging activists, specifically Diane Nash, Stokely Carmichael, Rosa Parks, and Bob Moses.