Nick Oates
Zahra Faruqui: Why did you decide to create Activism Club?
Connor Jacobson: I decided to start Activism Club because I got into activism through the Sunrise movement which is a youth climate justice group. They do other things too, but their main focus is climate justice. I got into that a few months ago and I started Activism Club because I wanted to find other people in the school that were also interested in helping with climate justice organizing in the school. I’m still looking to make it bigger because I want more people to be in it.
Gerald Hively: Why is this club important to have right now?
CJ: It’s important to have right now because of the political moment we’re in, or the climate justice moment we’re in where we need to take action, otherwise things are going to get worse, in multiple ways. Activism club is not just climate. We’re also doing a campaign about helping immigrants feel safer. We care about immigrants because my friends are immigrants, a lot of them. I see them at school and I see how they’re affected by the rhetoric coming out of Washington. And so we’re trying to do a campaign about that.
ZF: Which communities do you think this will affect the most?
CJ: So the side that’s climate justice, that’s going to affect everyone. That’s really benefiting everyone that wants to live in the world after the next few years, once the climate is worse and it’s harder to ignore the climate crisis. As far as the other parts of activism, minorities like immigrants, we haven’t yet done any campaigns around trans rights, but I want to, we’re just thinking one thing at a time.
GH: Do you have any actions planned currently? And what would be their purpose?
CJ: Yeah, the next thing that we are trying to organize is we want to get the word out about why it’s important to stand up for immigrant rights and not spread the hateful rhetoric. Also the fact that a lot of the things people say like “oh, immigrants are bringing fentanyl in”, like that’s all not true. And also like “immigrants are doing more crime than other people. That’s also not true like, people per person, adjusted for the amount of immigrants there are, immigrants commit way less violent crime than people that were born in the U.S. So we’re spreading information about that. On April 9th there is going to be a protest where we are asking everyone to wear a white shirt.
ZF: What impact do you plan to have on students?
CJ: Mostly, I really want to have an impact on the way people are thinking about things. Like, a lot of people think that they can’t change the world or can’t make a difference in policy or politics. I want to at least affect the people in Activism Club to get them to see that you can make a difference.
GH: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
CJ: Like I said, you can make a positive change in the world if you want to. If you’re worried about where the world is going, I would encourage you to join Activism Club.