Love for the Youth
During our interview we talk about Bell Hooks and her "love ethic". I asked what she thought of love's role in change and activism.
She grew up in the Catholic Church where she was taught that love was our most prominent value. She was taught "love for the neighbor" and especially love for marginalized communities and the most vulnerable. While she is outraged that many of the prominent politicians in America also grew up in the church and have done nothing but use their church ideals to justify their hate and injustice, she allowed this to feed her activism. With love as a basis to her activism, she wanted to help those in need by just being human. She emphasized that "when you place yourself in politics as someone on the same level as those in marginalized communities" you grow empathy for their issue and drive to want to help those deprived of justice.
Julianna stated that "the driving force for her activism was the youth". When faced with a social or political issue she always thought "How is this affecting my generation"? These are only of few of the many clubs, social groups, and activist project that Julianna lead. Additionally to local activism, in which she was very invested, she also created the Santa Clarita branch of the UN Sustainability Goals and actually got out branch recognized by the United Nations. She's an activism on so many social and political issues and try to find way in which the youth can get involved and have their voice be heard. In a white flight suburb in which we both lived, it was fretting to see love for other drive activism, especially coming from a women of color. Her activism was a form, she stated, of both resistance and resilience for our generation is so num to racial and sexual injustice that was must be resistant to these labels and fight for our rights.
Additionally, something that she was really proud of in high school were her open mic nights that she held to allow artists of all walks of life to share a new perspective and their experiences with certain social or political issues. She believes that "good art is political" and that it gives a fresh new take on pressing issues; different from the bickering of our politicians on twitter. Design, Media, and Art are such huge parts of the political and social atmosphere for it is the first thing people notice when seeing posters, campaigns, and news.
Because of the fact that Julianna is living in France right now she is place in this interesting intersection of French and American social and political atmospheres. I asked what she thinks is the different between French politics and American politics and she says that it's simply "the difference of recognizing what the problem is". France understanding that climate change is a problem and actively tried to do their part. They understand that health care and education is a human right and make it free or affordable for all. While America is still arguing over whether or not climate change is real and health care and education are only for those of the middle class and above. However, sexism and racism in both places is still extremely prominent. France sees itself as a colorblind society and while I understand that they may be trying to be political correct however, the act of not seeing color undermines the struggle of the black and POC communities. And in American, as if racial tension isn't already at its highest, "trump has destroyed the fabric of anything American" as Julianna states during our interview. She talks about how being an American women of color in France gives her an advantage in a way to talk about different issues, have a different perspective, and give her more avenues of discussion. She uses her intersectionality to have a bigger platform to talk about different issues and draw upon multiple perspective in her studies and future activism.