Hi friends.
A couple months ago i got an email in my inbox inviting me to be a youtube creators for change
fellow.
What?
Like, I love what we do here on this channel, telling stories about how we see the world,
and how we want to make it better but I was kind of surprised.
Do we--you and me--here in these videos.
_really_ create change?
Well, yeah actually.
Here's the thing.
Since the election here in the US, a lot of people myself included are seeing how hate
speech and extremism and xenophobia are showing up in our everyday lives.
If they affect us personally, they're really scary.
And if they don't we feel like, Maybe I don't have any power to fix it.
I want to create change, but I'm just me.
I'm not strong enough to do this by myself.
So that's why I talked to one of the strongest women I know.
Jess Morales Rocketto is a friend and a mentor and incredible activist.
She's done things like help to elect president Obama, she's fought for workers to get fair
wages, she's fought for immigrant rights, she's helped organize the protests that
happened in airports across the US in the wake of the ban on people from muslim countries
entering the us.
If anyone knows how to make things change, it's Jess.
Let's go meet her.
THB: So, Jess, who are you and what do you do
JMR: I'm Jess Morales Rocketto.
I like to say that I'm a digital community organizer which is a fancy way of saying that
I help recruit and connect people to causes that they care about but I mostly do it online
THB: Cool. so if I'd never heard of organizing, what is organizing?
JMR: I've been thinking about that a lot lately because I think that I think that right
now like in 2017 Trump era, it can feel sort of like, people I always hear from people
like "I really want to do something."
and organizing is the answer to what you would do.
THB: yeah JMR: people are like I want to help like what
they really mean is I want to organize.
I just don't know about organizing yet, and part of what we do in organizing is try to
figure out how to change the things that we don't like, or maybe it's not even about not
liking them it's just like "I know that things could be better."
And organizing is saying "I'm going to accept responsibility to make things better.
Okay, alright, I am familiar with this feeling because I once thought that I was going to
make things better.
All the things.
The whole thing.
In it's entirety.
To start I was going to become president.
Immediately stop all the wars and divert all military spending to education and food and
housing for the poor.
Things, better, right?
So in 8th grade i decided to run in my middle school mock election.
I started a blog about my experiences, I prepped for the debates, and...i quickly figured out
that it's more complicated than that.
JMR: Like, our government is complicated. and that's at the federal level, but it also
it's exciting sometimes especially complicated.
when it gets down to like, "something in my town and it seems not right or my school.
So yeah one for me it means okay have to find a solution to the problem and in two I think
it means I have to enlist other people to be part of fixing it.
I think that in school folks make you feel like Rosa Parks like went to the back of the
bus and then she like that was it.
but like that's a lie.
I mean she was amazing and courageous and like all power to Rosa She was part of a strategy
that was about the Montgomery bus boycott and so there was her and then there was a
lot of other people who were taking lots of different types of action.
So it isn't like one person there's always somebody behind that one person there's usually
a lot of somebody's behind that one person.
So that's why you have to enlist people you have to say like come on.
Oh right...that feeling that you're just one person?
Well, yeah you are just one person, of course you can't fix everything all by yourself.
That's why I couldn't even win an 8th grade election on my own.
But, Jess explained to me that that's what organizing is for.
It's so you don't have to do things all by yourself.
And so that you you don't have to do everything.
Maybe you just start with one, small achievable thing.
JMR: I think like, if you're, like, our age: Like, I'm used to like my food coming when
I order it, and my groceries coming two hours after I order them -- I didn't have to leave
my house -- and like being able to buy anything I want, you know, like, on the internet and
then it'll come to me, hopefully with two day flash shipping, my god.
[00:15:00:00] So I think that it's hard to be like: yeah in five years we might make
some kind of incremental progress that maybe you never see.
So I also think it's really important to think about what is impact that you want to make
as a person.
Maybe you should be slightly more realistic than full equality for women, like, that,
I mean I don't want to discourage anyone from that, like, that'd be great.
THB: yeah JMR: But it takes a lot of people do that,
one person can't do that on their own.
So maybe the answer is just like at your school or at your job you, like, want dudes to stop
interrupting you.
Like, that, if a dude heard, like, you can't be interrupted and then he stopped doing that,
like that actually is progress.
What I didn't understand was that even a small fight isn't one you take on alone.
To change your office culture you might need to talk to all the women in your office.
To win a school election you might gather up your friends to help you.
If you can grab a couple of people you can get started.
Jess has even turned to her friends, who turned to their friends, who turned into thousands
of people protesting at airports.
JMR: I recently organized, helped organize Airport protests all around the country.
So when there was a Muslim travel ban and people went to the airports to protest it
I helped make those happen.
It was amazing.
And people, I was like doing it over Twitter.
And people would DM me and they were those how do I start a protest and the first thing
I said to them was "go pick up some friends," "get your car and go to your friend's
house."
And i would just think like you know I like doing most things with my friends: I like
going to eat Ice Cream with my friends, I like binge watching TV shows with my friends,
like, and I also like organizing with my friends.
[00:07:44:06] It's easier to do when you're not alone there's more people to do the work
yeah but also like sort of two heads are better than one like.
If you're trying to figure out a solution for probably a fairly complex problem you
probably need some other folks with you
Cool cool stronger together, safety in numbers.
Let's get a bunch of people together and we'll win.
Mm.
Not...exactly true, see the thing Jess taught me is that organizing is also a game of stamina.
It's not patiences, its perseverance.
You've gotta be prepared to lose some battles in the fight for progress.
You've gotta be ready to organize for the long haul.
JMR: I've been doing this for ten years, and you got to keep going.
[00:15:00:00] yeah, I think you have to organize differently around those long term things.
Um it takes a long time.
I think about this in relation to women's equality.
So people always are like oh like the 60s people burn their bras, but like actually
no, like, in the early 1900s that is when that fight started and not even, like, even
before that.
[00:13:00:00] Like the progress that we have as women has happened because people have
been fighting for literally 100 years, or more.
THB: Yeah.
JMR: So I think when I put it in the context of a century, I'm like "okay so, there's
like room to go."
But we have, like, come a really long way.
Especially the woman of color, I think about that a lot, like I'm latina and my grandfather
worked as a migrant farmer and my grandmother worked at home because there really wasn't
another job for her except maybe being a maid.
And my other side my grandmother was a maid, and now I've worked for, you know, a president,
the first black president, you know, and one of America's like premier stateswomen who
ran for to try to be the first woman president, twice.
And like that was in two generations.
[LIGHT FLICKER] I'll repeat: that was in two generations.
So, that feels like a short amount of time to me, because, like, I know my grandfather.
THB: Yeah JMR [00:14:00:00]: Right, and so then I think
about, like, okay in two more generations – so my daughter's daughter, look what
could that be?
Like, well, she can probably be the president.
So it's going to take a long time to create big big change.
And what's even more frustrating is that not everyone's going to be on your team.
One of my entries after that 8th grade debate was this.
"One of the girls on the other side kept telling all the other kids that all minorities
are poor and not educated enough to vote.
Being a minority in a mostly white school I was really upset and this girl doesn't
even see why.
That was my first taste of realizing that when you want to make change, Not everyone's
going to like you.
not everyone will agree with you.
In fact, they may disagree with you loudly.
They can say really nasty things, and even get violent.
But according to Jess, that's reason enough to keep going.
JMR: like, those folks to me are people that we just, like, haven't persuaded yet.
We haven't activated yet.
And like I don't, I believe that 100% of people can be a part of whatever you're trying to
change.
And so I use them like a little bit of a temperature check, like, "oh okay, well we're not done
yet."
I think about this woman Dolores Huerta, who is the founder of The United Farm Workers
and she always says like you know "you can't be a good girl."
And that like when we're growing up people tell us "don't get your dress dirty" and
like "be nice" and like "sugar and spice"-type stuff.
THB: Yeah JMR: And like, fuck that.
And I think that that has really helped me when I'm a little bit discouraged, like there's
a woman who worked [00:17:00:00] as a picking in the field, like picking your food in the
fields, and she organized people.
And she's been doing this since she was my age, and she's still doing it at like eighty,
ninety maybe even.
And, like, she is both, like gets up every morning and like fights for equality -- the
things she's been getting up every morning and doing for really long time and like has
been discouraged and just like hasn't let that stop her.
We're not gonna let it stop us either Jess.
And here's why.
I asked Jess to tell me a story of a time when all the work, all the losses, all the
disappointments were worth it.
A time when she actually got to see the outcome she'd been working for happen.
JMR: I was coming home from brunch and when I saw that the first airport protest had happened
at JFK Airport.
And if you're not in New Yorker its like probably hard to understand, like nobody goes to JFK.
Like you avoid JFK like at all costs.
So the idea that New Yorkers would just spontaneously go to JFK Airport, was like woah, yeah, like,
that's a thing.
This is like wow. [00:19:00:00] And then I literally um got
an email from a friend who was like "hey we think there are protests at other places"
she was at the JFK protest and she said "we think they're other protests in other places
can someone look on twitter and see, is there other protests."
And I was like looking at it on my phone, I was like well: "I hope somebody does that."
THB: yeah JMR: "It'd be really good if somebody did
that."
And I think sometimes that's what happens like a lot is like "I hope somebody does
that," but the answer is like: You should do it.
THB: Yeah, yeah JMR: You're the person.
And so like my guilt kinda gnawed at me.
So at first I was like well, I hope somebody does that and I close my phone.
And then I was like, uh I'm the somebody.
It's me.
So then I wikipedia'd what are the 20 airports that are, that get the most international
flights every day and I found the top 20 airports I was like okay that's our targets.
THB: Awesome.
JMR: Thanks Wikipedia!
And, you know, I'm an organizer for a living, so I sorta like knew a little bit more than
the average bear, but like I've never planned protests at airports before – I'm not even
really a protest planner to be totally honest.
So, I had to Wikipedia it.
And it that was, there was like 20 airports and I was like okay well we need protesters
in, like, these places, if you're in these places.
And then I started calling friends who are living in those places.
And I started tagging them on Facebook and tweeting at them.
And then they started tagging their friends and tweeting at them.
And, you know, it kind of took on a life of its own.
And then some group started planning their own protest.
there's a schoolteacher in St. Louis and she twitter DM'd me and she was like, "well
I've never played a protest, but I really care about this, like what do I do" and
I sent her, "I was like okay what's your email?" and sent her an email that was like,
"one get in the car and pick up some friends.
[00:22:00:00] Two think up some chants and some songs to sing while you're in the car
on the way to the airport" THB: Yeah
JMR: "Three when you get there, don't leave.
Like they're going to try to make you leave, don't leave."
and then like, it was something so big!
Right?
Like it wasn't just me, there's so many people who went to airports – who tweeted about
it, who planned it, who made signs, who stayed there.
And at that point like, there were protests at almost every major airport in the country.
There were hundreds of thousands of people that had come out.
And I started, kind of, switching into trying to show people what the protests were like.
And I found a video of the Dulles Airport.
And Dulles is sort of like JFK, like it's terrible to get to.
It's like a soul-sucking place, nobody likes it, your average International Airport.
[00:23:00:00] And there were a huge number protestors.
And at the Dulles Airport there's a big hallway and there's the doors and they have clear,
like you can see through them.
And on one side of the doors was this woman.
She was in a full, like, covering and she was a Muslim woman.
And she, I'm totally gonna cry, oh no, I'm going to try hard not to.
She was on the other side and on the other side of her, on the other side of those doors
is hundreds of people.
And they are super diverse.
Some of them are holding American flags, some of them are holding black lives matter signs
and they're like singing and there's music and there's kids coloring.
And she makes it through the other side and she was clearly like a woman who had been
you know would has been affected by the travel ban.
And she looked like, when she comes over, like just the room just like erupts in cheers.
[00:24:00:00] And she at first she looked, honestly was a little scared and bewildered,
which make sense to me.
THB: yeah JMR: I think I would too.
I don't think she knew that on other side were all these people who were trying to help
make sure that she could get to those doors.
THB: yeah JMR: And she comes over, everyone starts cheering.
She gets a little scared and then she gets excited too.
She like erupts.
And I had just, I had never seen.
I had never seen people do that for a Muslim woman.
I've never seen people do that in the Dulles Airport.
I just had never seen so many people do that for immigrants.
And I had kind of given up hope after November.
That's… there were people like that.
THB: Yeah JMR: And there were.
They were all over the world.
They were there, and they stayed and they made it like so amazing.
And I realized that at that moment like, I had to keep answering the call to "I hope
somebody does that" to "That somebody is me, and it's them and it's that woman."
And I believe that we can be like that again.
JMR: Yeah so I think like for me it's…
I was just one person.
I was just one person in my small apartment with my dogs and I was tweeting.
THB: yeah JMR: And it took a lot of us doing that.
And it took us going to airports.
And it took us making signs.
And it took us being like I'm tired after work but I'm still going to go.
THB: mm-hmm JMR: And I think like that's what we got to
keep doing.
Like I do think that all of us have to [00:29:00:00] put a drop in the bucket.
And it could feel like when you're putting a drop in the bucket, like, "well what difference
is this making."
If it's making a difference to you, like, that's enough.
THB: yeah JMR: I think that speaking up and speaking
out and being courageous, whatever like that means it can be a big, it can be small makes
a big difference.
And I think if more people decided to be the somebody, like, it would be easier.
Alright okay you've got me Jess.
I want to be that somebody I want to find something that's not right, and I want to
use organizing to make it better so...where do I even start?
JMR: Yeah so I've been thinking about this a lot and I think that there…
I would say there's one really specific thing.
And that answer is" you should have a house party.
So okay a house party in organizing is like the very first step.
[00:31:00:00 ] You call your friends and you get together and you could have some wine
or some food, or maybe like whatever special lemonade that you make.
You can decorate if you want, like, and you kind of figure out like what's the thing that
we want to change.
And sometimes that can be big and sometimes it can be small.
So I've been at a house meeting where we decided that what we wanted to change was, we wanted
to run a candidate for Congress.
And we didn't have any money, and we didn't really know we like we didn't really know
when the election was.
But we had to go out and like research and figure that out.
So I would say the thing that you should do is: you should get you and like your best,
your best girls, get a squad together and figure out what you want to change.
And it's going to take a little bit of research and it's also going to take you, kind of looking
around, and seeing who's already trying to change it.
Could you partner up with them?
And then you should try to do one thing.
[00:32:00:00] So that could be, like right now I'm helping some friends who are trying
to organize care packages for trans service members because they are being attacked by
President Trump right now.
[LIGHT FLICKER] Because they are being attacked by President Trump right now.
It could be like, volunteering for a candidate because there's a really important election
coming up, or it could be going to a protest.
But I think like that's step one, because once you do at one time, I mean I think, you'll
do it another time. and you can even like, Google, like "how
to have a house meeting" and there's tons of resources online to help you do that.
It's like something people have been doing for many, many, many years.
Lots of your favorite social movement babes got their start like having a house meeting
with their friends.
And I suspect that after you do that one time you'll kind of see what you should do next
after that.
THB: Awesome sounds great.
That is I think a really good challenge because it's, you know, I've done organizing in different
ways before but that is something that I've never done.
So this will be a new experience for me.
JMR: Yeah THB: We can all do it together,
So a quick recap if you're playing along at home
First we're going to decide to be the somebody to fix a problem.
Did you do it?
Did you decide?
Great we're already part of the way there.
We're going to try something small or specific to start
And we're going to ask our friends to help us.
So I'm going to ask my friends here in New York for some help, by throwing a house party,
which is a fun way to say an organizing meeting And I am asking you, my friends to help me
too.
I wanna do this together.
So I'm going to host a house party, and I want you to do the same.
There's a link in the description where you can sign up to host your own and If you
do it by October 14th, I might put you in a future video in this Creators for Change
series!
Until then, tell me in comments about a thing in your state or city, or school or job that
you want to change.
I'll see you soon!
Bye
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