Politics matters to you and you matter to politics.
This theme runs through the Center for Youth Political Participation’s teaching, research, and outreach efforts. We recognize though that politics is not always equal.
Our Center believes that Black lives matter, the lives of our students matter, young adults matter, and politics matters.
The Center for Youth Political Participation deplores the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and the untold number of Black Americans who have been murdered throughout the nation’s history. These killings highlight the tragic shortcomings of our democracy and American politics. They reflect years of systemic discrimination and institutional racism that have pervaded our democratic institutions and practices, not only in systems of law enforcement but in systems integral to a healthy democracy including access to the ballot. Such systemic discrimination has resulted in generations of inequity based on race, gender, religion, and sexual orientation. The political process and the decisions made by those in power have consequences, some of them deadly.
At the same time, the courageous acts of protest and expression by young people across the country, including our Rutgers students, have been absolutely inspirational, underscoring the political impact of speaking up and taking action. As they have on so many occasions and on so many fronts, young adults are leading the way – pushing us to put our democratic ideals into practice.
We take this moment to reflect on the ways in which we’ve failed to do enough to support diversity and inclusion in our own work to equip and encourage young adults to be democratic citizens. We also take this moment to critically examine how our Center can make anti-racism and equitable access to all facets of democracy a reality in our teaching, our research, and in our efforts to register, educate, and mobilize young adults.
This statement is just a first step.
