Alicia Garza Is Bringing Black Power From The Streets To The Polls

Alicia Garza is a queer, civil rights activist who has spent much of the last decade battling state-sanctioned racism in the form of police brutality and working to make brighter futures for Black Residents of the United States everywhere. At 39, Garza, a longtime organizer who previously advocated for workers’ rights with the National Domestic Workers Alliance, co-founded Black Lives Matter in 2013 in response to the acquittal of former Florida policeman George Zimmerman for the murder of Trayvon Martin. Right now, the hashtag that became a movement has taken center stage in today’s cultural landscape and birthed the expansive Movement for Black Lives, a coalition of over 50 firms representing thousands of Black people nationally, placing Garza at the front of a turning point for social justice activism.


Months ahead of the presidential election, Garza, who lives and works in Oakland, California, is currently focusing on translating the power she helped organize in the streets into Black power at the polls. Her aim is to increase politicians’ understanding of and engagement with real Black issues by educating them on policies that Black voters care about through her agency, Black Futures Lab. The lab has conducted assignments, like the Black Census Project, to hear and learn directly from Black Residents of the
U.S. Across the nation, while her initiative Black to the Ballot aims to register 10,000 new Black voters. She talked with MTV News about her sweeping new vision to empower young, Black voters in time for the November election.


MTV News: How did you make the jump from co-founding Black Lives Matter to working in Black voter engagement?


Alicia Garza: To be truthful, 2016 was our last major election cycle and yes it was a big whirlwind. At the time, I was helping to lead the global Black Lives Matter network. We were going back and forth about whether or not we should endorse a candidate, attempting to get candidates to even mention “Black lives matter,” pushing back against candidates who were saying things like “all lives matter.” It was a lot, and then at the end of the day, what I came to understand very clearly was that Black voter engagement needed more attention, nevertheless not from the perspective that we so often visualize it.


Often throughout election cycles, Black communities get lectured a lot about why we should vote without telling the truth about what's at stake for our communities. It makes sense that this isn't a process that we all habitually feel good about. And frankly, we are also making sure that we're approaching Black voter engagement not from a symbolic perspective, although from a substantive one.


MTV News: What do you mean by substantive?


Garza: Well, I can't tell you how several plates of baked chicken I have seen in election cycles ever since I began to vote. I think candidates feel like they have to connect to our communities culturally and so they do so in ways that are usually really driven by stereotypes. Besides the fact that's racist, the other problem is, ultimately, that symbolism gets in the way of the substantive conversations that candidates need to be having with our communities.


They come bearing soul food, although they don't come bearing agendas for what kinds of policies they are prepared advance sort in attempt to change the conditions of our lives. And then, frankly, they come demanding concerts and celebrity appearances, however again, they don't come demanding that substantive change happens for Black communities. So that's what we're up to.


MTV News: What are a few of the substantive topics and issues that young, Black voters are looking for?


Garza: It ranges. We did the biggest survey of Black people In the United States in 155 years. It's called the Black Census Project, and you also would think that due to the conversations that are happening now in this nation — along with due to the disproportionate way in which Black communities are hyper-criminalized and incarcerated — that the number-one distribute that we care about is criminal justice reform. We noticed that it's actually not, though it is an offer that we are deeply connected to. The distribute that keeps us awake at night is low wages that are insufficient to support a family.


Next to that, it's the lack of access to affordable and excellent health care. Next to that, it's the lack of access to affordable and excellent housing. They impact each person, nevertheless there really are specific and unique barriers that keep Black communities from being able to access these things, and one of these specific barriers is racism. So once we talk about expanding the middle class, we have to remember that the gap between Black wealth and white wealth is vast.


I can also tell you that people mentioned they had never been asked what they experienced or what they want for their futures, yet isn't that the complete point of running for office? You desire to listen to your potential constituency and listen to what they're experiencing daily, and then you also wish to know how they want those problems solved so that you could be the ideal representative for those communities. That gap between what is actually happening in elections and what should be happening in elections is exactly what we're attempting to bridge at the Black Futures Lab and the Black to the Future Action Fund.


MTV News: Tell us about Black to the Ballot. Is that an assignment of Black Futures Lab?


Garza: It is. It’s our way of assisting to support and build the capacity of Black-led grassroots firms across the nation to be powerful in politics. We've done two things with the Black to the Ballot: One, we've designed a Black agenda that clearly outlines the issues that we heard most often in our Black Census survey; plus it provides tangible, actionable solutions to address those challenges.


MTV News: I imagine organizing a movement that had its heart in the streets like Black Lives Matter is different from organizing politically. What's the most interesting thing you've noticed between those experiences?


Garza: People who are out on the streets are there because they have ideas about what this nation should look like and why it should be run. What I think is really fascinating is that people who are protesting are also designing policy. That's something that we're up to at the Black to the Future Action Fund. We just launched our Black to the Future Public Policy Institute where, just next week, we are going to announce 40 fellows who we plan to train to design, win, and develop policy across the country.


MTV News: do you know that we can visualize the same level of young, Black voter engagement that we did back once Obama was running for office?


Garza: It’s going to depend upon a couple of things, [like] deep investments in Black infrastructure and corporations that are connected to Black, young people. It’s going to depend on making sure that the issues that young people care about are front and center in this election cycle. One thing I do know is that young people in this nation, they're not with the agenda that is dividing us.


I am going to mention, though, that one of the things that's going to be really, really crucial is a candidate that will not only listen to young people, however a candidate that will elevate young people's voices and activate young people on their own behalf to prepare ensure that everybody shows up at the polls.


MTV News: there really is a generational divide in Black support for Democratic candidate Joe Biden. A lot of older Black voters prefer Biden whereas a lot of younger Black voters skew progressive like most of our generation. Do you suggest that's going to be an offer in November?


Garza: I do. I think that the choice that young folks are making now isn't between Trump or Biden. It’s whether to vote or not to vote, and thus that is why it's so crucial to have a substantive agenda that actually addresses the issues that we care about, although that also advances real solutions to the challenges that we face every day.


MTV News: What's the number-one thing you would love to be able to see the Democratic party do to reach out to young, Black voters before November?


Garza: I would like them to reach out to young, Black voters! I want them to invest way more resources and build infrastructure in Black communities so that our communities are engaged and empowered to take this nation back.


MTV News: What's it been like for you to be able to see Black Lives Matter expand into every corner of the world over the last couple of years?


Garza: It's really humbling. Patrisse [Cullors], Opal [Tometi], and I began a hashtag and an agency in 2013 that went global. We helped to also pull with each other an ecosystem that was much broader than the agency that we founded, and that ecosystem is called the Movement for Black Lives and it also is taking the world by storm. So I can mention that I feel hopeful and I feel humbled to be the smallest part of such incredible and enormous change.


This interview has been edited for range and clarity.