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Young people are becoming more interested in activism, but knowing how to create real change can be difficult and overwhelming. Where are we even supposed to start? Enter: Now What? Hosted by Tessa Claire Hersh (she/her), each episode of Now What? explores a different social or political cause through conversations with youth activists and provides concrete ways to make a difference in their communities.
In this episode, civil rights activist Ja’mal Green shares steps on how to get involved with the racial justice movement in your own community.
Transcript provided by YouTube:
00:00
– Welcome to activism.
00:01
I’ll be your waitress for the evening.
00:03
Are you familiar with our menu?
00:04
– I thought I was,
00:05
but it looks like some of the options have changed.
00:07
– Yeah, we’re always updating our activism options.
00:10
I’d love to recommend for starters,
00:12
fighting for racial justice.
00:14
– Yeah, that sounds good.
00:16
– Okay, great.
00:16
Would you like the peaceful protest,
00:18
the monetary donation or the black square?
00:20
– I don’t know.
00:21
What would you recommend?
00:22
– Personally I would stay away from the black square.
00:24
It’s really just empty calories.
00:25
Unless you combine it with monetary donation,
00:29
or a peaceful protest or both.
00:31
– I’ll take all 3.
00:33
– Right under that,
00:34
we have the very popular climate change.
00:37
Human mate, yes.
00:39
And it comes with a side of plastic reduction.
00:42
– I’ll wait on that and maybe have it for dessert.
00:45
– No, I think you need to get that right now.
00:46
We’re running out of time.
00:49
– Okay!
00:50
– We also have women’s rights on page 3,
00:52
opioid crisis on page 4,
00:53
mental health police reform immigration.
00:55
That does come with ICE,
00:56
gun control healthcare.
00:58
Also voting rights with a side of gerrymandering.
01:01
– You know what?
01:02
Last time I was here,
01:03
I just had a plate of supportive silents.
01:05
– Yes, it’s yes.
01:06
Silent support?
01:07
That option is no longer available.
01:10
– Oh, okay.
01:12
You know what?
01:13
I’ll just have 1 of everything.
01:16
1 of everything,
01:17
I’m having 1 of everything.
01:27
– Hey, so you’re here because you wanna fight for justice.
01:30
Great, me too.
01:32
Now what?
01:32
My name is Tessah Claire Hursh.
01:34
I’m an actor, writer, teacher.
01:36
I used to be a doula, somatic therapist,
01:38
education inclusion consultant, babysitter,
01:42
hostess for a Japanese restaurant,
01:44
because I love that free sushi.
01:46
Maybe like me,
01:48
you’ve become inspired to do more,
01:51
to fight for change,
01:52
but you would love some tips on how and what to do.
01:57
It’s amazing.
01:58
There are people out there,
02:00
really making an actual difference.
02:03
And then there’s some of us who are still on the couch,
02:07
compelled to really do more,
02:09
but we don’t know what to do.
02:11
That’s why we have this show.
02:12
Each episode, we are going to talk to an amazing activist,
02:16
who is going to help us understand,
02:18
the root of some of these issues,
02:21
and real actionable steps we can take to fight for change.
02:25
This episode, we gonna be talking
02:27
about a little thing called racial justice.
02:29
I know it’s a big one,
02:31
and there’s so many elements to it,
02:32
but we gonna be talking to a super cool activist,
02:35
named Ja’Mal Green.
02:46
– Civil rights activist,
02:47
Ja’Mal Green was the youngest mayoral candidate ever,
02:49
in his native Chicago.
02:51
Where this dad of three,
02:52
has a commitment to community organizing,
02:54
and entrepreneurship that is as strong
02:56
as the windy city’s guests,
02:58
and he is not afraid to tackle all the elements.
03:01
So let’s dive in.
03:02
Hey, Ja’Mal.
03:03
Thank you so much for joining us.
03:06
It seems like you’re focusing a lot
03:08
on racial economic equity,
03:10
in a lot of the work that you’re doing.
03:12
I’d love to hear what you would like to say
03:15
to new activists who are fired up,
03:19
but don’t know exactly how to get started.
03:22
What would you say is a first step?
03:23
– First step is to find an agenda
03:26
that’s really gonna benefit people that you wanna serve.
03:28
A lot of people are compelled after looking
03:32
at the neighborhoods, just like I was.
03:34
I was a young boy from Inglewood,
03:36
who seen people shot in front of me,
03:39
saw poverty firsthand,
03:41
went to several horrible resource schools,
03:45
where I was kicked out of nine of them.
03:46
It’s all of my experiences throughout my young life,
03:49
made me have the passion to wanna change things,
03:52
for the next generation.
03:53
– That’s amazing.
03:55
I noticed on your Instagram,
03:56
that the first thing that you say is that you’re a dad.
04:00
I’m wondering in terms of the work and activism
04:03
that you’re doing,
04:04
are there things that you’re doing in your home,
04:06
to fight for change?
04:08
– Yeah, building the next generation of leaders
04:11
starts at home,
04:12
and as a father of three boys,
04:14
they watch everything that I do.
04:16
We do a lot of affirmations,
04:17
too black, too strong.
04:20
That’s number one, is teaching self-love,
04:22
because if they love themselves,
04:24
they can love others
04:25
and want to do more.
04:27
They’ve been out protesting.
04:29
We’ve been out feeding the homeless.
04:30
They’ve been in the last two LGBTQ Pride parades
04:35
here in Chicago.
04:36
So they’ve been a part of all the different types
04:38
of causes.
04:39
And hopefully, when they become men,
04:41
they’ll step into some of my footsteps,
04:44
but I want them to create the ones now.
04:46
– Sounds like your home is actually really fun.
04:51
It’s interesting.
04:52
I know racial justice is a global issue,
04:55
but it seems like you’ve really focused on Chicago,
04:59
and your immediate community,
05:00
and ways that you can make an impact there.
05:02
Do you have steps for young aspiring activists,
05:06
in terms of how they look around their own community,
05:09
to see what kind of change they can make,
05:12
towards racial economic equity and racial justice,
05:15
in their own communities?
05:16
– Tap into what you love the most about the community,
05:20
what you wanna see different,
05:22
and once you tap into that you can start small.
05:25
I tell people all the time,
05:27
you can start right there on your block.
05:29
So you gotta get up,
05:29
you gotta get out there,
05:30
find people with common ideology,
05:33
find organizations that you volunteer with,
05:35
find a political campaign
05:37
that’s talking about things that affect your community,
05:40
that you volunteer with.
05:41
And then once you around these different people,
05:43
you’ll start to connect the dots,
05:46
to start coming around an issue,
05:49
that you really want to fight against,
05:51
and solutions to fight for.
05:52
– I love that.
05:53
It is very clear that you are a visionary,
05:56
and that you have a vision for what is possible.
05:59
One of the most amazing examples of that,
06:02
is what you did with Chase banks in Chicago.
06:05
– Yeah, and we have results.
06:07
– Yeah, you got true results.
06:09
Please share a little bit about that process with us.
06:13
– Back in June,
06:13
WBEZ, which is a local non-profit publication
06:18
here in Chicago,
06:19
they put out an article,
06:21
about how Chase bank had the worst numbers,
06:24
when it came to lending to black communities,
06:26
in the city of Chicago.
06:27
And so when I saw the report,
06:29
I said we’re gonna do something.
06:31
So we put together a whole list that we want Chase to do,
06:34
and then I did a press conference,
06:36
and said we’re gonna give Chase seven days
06:38
to respond to our demands,
06:40
or we gonna take action.
06:41
But of course it’s the biggest bank in America
06:43
so they’re like we ain’t listening
06:45
to whoever this is in Chicago.
06:47
I said, cool, let’s rock and roll.
06:49
They didn’t know that I could pull people together,
06:51
and I have the social media influence that I have.
06:54
And so we started shutting down branches for days at a time,
06:58
all over Chicago.
06:59
That was our way of getting the attention
07:02
of those at the top.
07:03
They ended up bringing me to the table,
07:04
and I met with them a couple of times,
07:06
hanged up in those meetings,
07:08
because they were just talking
07:09
about we gonna improve our products
07:11
but they weren’t talking about real tangible things,
07:13
that I can bring back to the community.
07:15
So they had abandoned me and threatened to arrest me,
07:18
if I went into any bank in America, JP Morgan Chase.
07:23
That didn’t stop.
07:24
We’re still gonna go after these people,
07:25
we’re still gonna go on these branches,
07:27
and that’s what we ended up doing.
07:28
Now, the new announcement is that Chase
07:31
was unleashing 30 billion
07:33
to improve racial equity around America,
07:36
but the only target commitment was Chicago,
07:39
where we get a billion dollars.
07:41
– A billion dollars?
07:43
– Yeah, a billion dollars, right.
07:45
600 million in home loans for the next 5 years
07:48
they have to put out as well as 8,000 per homeowner
07:52
for down payment and closing costs for those homes,
07:55
and then a hundreds of millions of small business programs,
07:59
as well as startup costs for small businesses,
08:02
and they’re also hiring home lenders
08:05
in each of these branches,
08:06
not on permission, on salary to walk through people,
08:09
to buy homes for free.
08:10
So it was a big deal.
08:13
– It’s so amazing.
08:15
And this is so clearly going to affect,
08:18
the black Chicago community for generations.
08:22
– It’s a big deal,
08:23
but the bank doesn’t stop there.
08:25
That’s one bank.
08:25
There has been other banks,
08:27
that have not invested in these communities,
08:29
that we also got to hold accountable,
08:31
so that we can actually have real economic justice.
08:34
That’s what it’s about.
08:35
– It’s so exciting.
08:36
Now in our audience,
08:38
we have young aspiring activists.
08:40
How can they start to learn about financial literacy?
08:45
– When you look at what’s being taught in these communities,
08:49
I wouldn’t say they dropped the ball,
08:50
but the reality is,
08:51
it’s by design,
08:52
because they don’t want us to know how to invest in stocks.
08:55
So I want us to be financially literate,
08:58
I want us to know how important the credit is,
09:00
which is why we have to teach ourselves.
09:03
And we got to teach each other.
09:04
There are videos all over Facebook,
09:06
follow some of the folks who talk about these things.
09:08
Like one of the people that I look up to,
09:10
in the finance world is Dr. Boyce Watkins,
09:13
who has a PhD in finance.
09:16
Which is very rare for a black person to have.
09:20
And so I take those things from him,
09:22
and then I can teach other people.
09:25
– Ja’Mal, I think that there are a lot of young activists
09:27
who are excited to use social media
09:30
to help them in their fight for change.
09:32
Do you have any recommendations of what’s successful
09:35
in using social media for activism?
09:38
– Social media activism is obviously the world of activism.
09:40
How I look at it,
09:41
when I go into a protest,
09:43
is I can have 20 people with me,
09:46
but when I cut that camera on,
09:47
I got thousands of people with me.
09:49
And when you activate folks that are on social media,
09:52
you can push them to do things to help you in your fight.
09:55
Whether that is sign of petition,
09:56
email a certain representative,
09:59
that makes it even bigger.
10:00
My advice is be consistent,
10:02
put your agenda out there,
10:04
and go out and fight and take that first step forward.
10:06
– Ja’Mal, what do you mean by agenda?
10:08
– What I mean by agenda is,
10:10
find a cause that you’re passionate about,
10:12
and have real solutions for how to change those things,
10:17
and then put the action in place,
10:19
and if you put all of that together,
10:21
and you got your own movement.
10:22
– It’s pretty beautiful.
10:24
Ja’Mal, our audience is a variety of different races
10:27
and ethnicities,
10:28
what are some actions that someone
10:30
who identifies as an ally,
10:32
can do when they see racial inequity in their community?
10:35
– First thing that folks that are not of color can do
10:40
to help our fight,
10:41
is to recognize that they play a part in this fight.
10:44
That means that they have to recognize their privilege,
10:47
and recognize that there is a certain group
10:49
been oppressing and you should be an ally.
10:51
Second, it is finding a cause that you think is important
10:54
and help elevate that community.
10:56
Write letters, donate to organizations, report protest.
11:00
There’s so many things that you could do.
11:01
– Ja’Mal, I would love to hear,
11:04
what your vision is for Chicago.
11:07
What you love it’s already happening,
11:09
and what do you wanna see more often?
11:10
– What I love is that Chicago it’s a culture like no other.
11:14
The love the people have regardless of what’s going on.
11:18
Every weekend we’re averaging 40 to 60 people shot,
11:21
and still today if you walk around,
11:24
people are still showing love to each other.
11:26
What I wanna see is,
11:27
us this time unifying around how we can make change.
11:30
And instead of moving away,
11:32
we can put that time and effort into help in the calls,
11:35
to make sure that the next generation is able to grow up
11:39
on the south and west side of Chicago,
11:41
and really live out their full potential
11:43
in a safe environment.
11:45
– That’s so beautiful.
11:46
Thank you so much for sharing your vision
11:48
and it seems like already the work that you’ve done,
11:51
is absolutely going to support that vision.
11:53
Chicago is lucky to have you Ja’Mal.
11:55
– Thank you.
11:56
Ja’Mal, you mentioned how much we don’t learn
11:59
in our typical education,
12:01
especially around all of the contributions
12:03
black folks have offered us in history,
12:06
and I’m wondering if we can do a little exchange
12:09
of knowledge here.
12:10
Want to play a game called, Did you know?
12:12
– Let’s do it.
12:13
– All right, well, I’m an actor
12:14
and I love the representation
12:17
that’s happening in films and television.
12:20
So, id you know the first black woman
12:26
to win an Academy award,
12:28
was in the film, Gone With The Wind?
12:31
– Yes, I did.
12:33
Did you know that the automatic gear shift
12:36
was invented by black man by the name of Richard Spikes.
12:40
He also invented all the beer tap?
12:42
– Richard Spikes, I’d never heard that name before.
12:43
I didn’t know.
12:45
Did you know that the first successful open heart surgery,
12:51
was performed by a black surgeon.
12:53
– Yes.
12:58
– Dr. Daniel Hale Williams.
13:01
He did it in 1893,
13:03
which is wild to me.
13:06
– I think what people got to understand,
13:07
if you just stop using black inventions for one day,
13:12
you will not be able to do anything.
13:14
– Thank you so much Ja’Mal.
13:16
This was awesome.
13:17
I learned a lot and I know
13:18
that our audience is gonna walk away
13:20
with so much from this,
13:21
and I’m just so inspired by the work you’re doing.
13:23
– Thank you.
13:25
I appreciate that.
13:26
For actionable things that I would tell people is,
13:30
number one, find who you are and love yourself.
13:33
Self-love is so important.
13:34
The 2nd thing is,
13:36
make sure you’re doing everything that you can
13:39
so that you’re mentally in the right space,
13:41
because if you’re not,
13:43
then you’re not gonna be able to offer much to anyone else.
13:46
So to your community.
13:47
Number three is,
13:49
look at your community and see what you have to offer.
13:52
Did you have to offer a lot?
13:53
Number four is,
13:55
be consistent in your fight.
13:57
And if you feel it,
13:59
you know it’s what you should be doing.
14:01
Don’t ever stop,
14:02
because there’s better about around a corner.
14:04
– Wow, Ja’Mal reminded us
14:06
that there is so much to do,
14:08
and so much we can do.
14:11
Things I’m taking away from our conversation is that,
14:13
we need to find our agenda,
14:14
self-love and affirmations,
14:16
and that there is so much value in execution.
14:19
All right, so we’ve got some homework to do.
14:21
Be sure to check out Ja’Mal Green’s organization,
14:23
majosteeallstars.com,
14:25
and you can check out your local chapter,
14:27
of black lives matter.
14:28
And If you’re an ally,
14:28
you can check out,
14:29
showupforracialjustice.org,
14:31
from our resources.
14:32
Thanks so much for joining us.
14:33
Join us next week for another episode of Now What.
—
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This post was previously published on YouTube.
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