Youth Organizing in a Pandemic, How We Win

If a global pandemic that disproportionately kills Black Americans didn’t already surface the entrenched and systemic racial injustices that propagate throughout this country, the senseless murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor have ignited them to the fore. 

As a generation of young Americans, we are livid. And while so many of us are asking ourselves how to move forward amidst this renewed crisis, one thing remains clear. Campaign leaders, student organizers and grassroots volunteers of all kinds realize how crucial the efforts will be to get out the vote come November.

But due to stay-at-home policies potentially continuing throughout the summer, the political ground-game is still effectively digital. Regardless of how this strange reality has come about - it has flipped on its head what has so often been a political paradigm that has counted us out as the politically “disengaged” younger generation that does not show up when it counts.

We constantly find ourselves asking our elected leaders for a seat at the table. To have our voices included when addressing urgent concerns such as the generational crisis we face in climate change, or be heard when speaking up for our over-policed Black communities.

Now, while campaign events engaging in policy issues on Instagram or TikTok would normally be considered a “youth voter outreach” initiative, our reality forces these to be the only mediums to engage with any voter at all. A presidential candidate speaking out about the 100,000 American lives lost to Coronavirus was an Instagram post, not a rally in front of a hospital with healthcare workers. Mourning the death of George Floyd was a live stream, not a community town hall in Minneapolis. 

The proverbial table now lives on the Internet - and we so happen to find elected leaders asking for a seat at ours.

This is an unparalleled opportunity for us. We must use our digital fluency to our advantage for what we do best: creatively bend and strengthen the political discourse, in the hopes of converting engagement into real political action.

It is time we recognize that as a generation that has been coming of age in a world in which our attention is highly commoditized, the “meet them where they are” strategy - one that speaks “at” young voters, not “with” us - is reflective of a playbook from a bygone era of political content that simply doesn’t meet the moment.

Put another way, a top-down approach to scale experiences that centers a candidate’s appeal and charm in order to inspire voter turn-out efforts simply cannot overcome differences in adopting a youth-driven policy agenda. Instead, we must look to the movements that we know have made a difference.

The common thread that connects #BlackLivesMatter, March for Our Lives, Sunrise Movement and many others, is that they have lent themselves as a source of optimism and inspiration through the shared understanding of their collective impact, irrespective of age or ethnicity. Specifically for those whose faith in our democratic and judicial process is dwindling, they have helped connect us with others who share the emotional labor of discovering what we care about, and what we are willing to fight for.

In this way, the immersive experience of off-line organizing is unmatched in its ability to provide a sense of civic responsibility to communities, by allowing them to witness change up close for themselves.

It is why we protest. It is why we are in the streets. Tired and exhausted from the vitriol and inaction of government leaders past and present, amidst economic distress and upheaval, we find that the only recourse we have is to be physically present for our Black brothers and sisters in spite of a pandemic. The necessity of these forms of solidarity also means that it won’t ever be possible to fully operationalize movements on a digital platform entirely. 

But there are ways that creatively architecting digital experiences can help mobilize us in ways we have yet to see. Organizing efforts succeed when individuals connected to them feel a deep sense of ‘ownership’ over the organizing process, so that they feel that their presence and their voice is just as important as their vote.

This is why crafting digital organizing efforts around local races is so crucial. 

President Obama’s call to action in response to the continued protests erupting across the country, rightly pointed out the critical need to target local elections that hold decision making power. More importantly, focusing efforts around local races also centers what is already deeply personal to community members; their homes, their parks, their streets, their neighbors. Championing candidates that community members might already know personally, and digital organizing efforts that connect those already within walking distance from each other, can help create accountability around civic engagement and ‘ownership’ that is needed to move the needle forward on political action.

Pouring our creative talents and abilities into local communities also doubles as a means to building sustainable organizing movements for the future. Dismantling systems of oppression, and pressuring institutions to divest from a carceral state and invest in the future of their own communities requires much more than voting. It requires changing our own lives, reconfiguring our own priorities, so that we can help grow and lift up others as allies in the larger fight for justice.

This isn’t about beating Trump. Or about electing Biden. It’s not about creating content that conforms to metrics of engagement like follower counts fuelled by celebrity guest appearances, or viral memes. It’s about empowering ourselves, to recognize that we are no longer willing to be the underperforming demographic in a fight for the future of our own democracy. 

As digital natives, the battlefront is on our home turf. Now is the time for us to show up when it matters most.

- Vibhor

This piece is written from a personal observation about what it’s like to be a young voter during this time and, in thinking about President Obama’s earlier medium post, what we can do to organize during this crisis and respond to racial & systemic injustices brought on by George Floyd's death in the hopes of increasing youth voter turnout.