Candid Conversations: Civic Engagement Part II

November 2, 2020

by Greg Abazorius

From left: Allison Lange, Nicole Price, Lauren Creamer, Kristen Rosero and Courtney Wright

In Part I of our discussion on civic engagement, we spoke about reasons for getting involved and what our panel has seen from students in 2020. In this edition, we dive into what you can do beyond the presidential election, as well as why there’s reason to be hopeful about the future of democracy.

The following are excerpts from a discussion with Nicole Price, vice president for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; Allison Lange, assistant professor of history; Kristen Rosero, associate professor of political science; Courtney Wright, associate director for neighborhood relations; and Lauren Creamer, assistant director of CO-OPS + CAREERS.

This two-part feature is part of a series entitled "Candid Conversations," roundtable discussions hosted by the Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in collaboration with the Marketing and Communications Department. Each will focus on a topic connected to diversity, equity and/or inclusion.

Allison Lange has been regularly hosting and taking part in events related to the 100th Anniversary of the 19^th Amendment this year. She sees parallels between the fight for women to vote and voter suppression today.

Allison Lange: I've spent the last decade or so studying the history of the women's voting rights movement, and it's become very clear to me just how essential having the right to vote is. And it's really interesting and unfortunate to see the ways that a lot of these conversations about voting rights that were happening a century ago continue today in various ways. We're now talking about it in more cloaked language—about voter ID laws, about whether felons can vote. All these conversations were happening in the early 20^th century about gender and race and class and which citizens were allowed to vote. It’s just not quite so explicitly about those categories today.

One of Kristen Rosero’s earliest memories is of the Berlin Wall coming down. She appreciates how fast power can shift and she believes it’s imperative to be civically active.

Kristen Rosero: I've spent my academic career studying comparative politics and understanding what democracy versus non-democracy looks like, and when democracy starts to fail. If you don't use your rights, you're going to lose them. I see [civic engagement] as an essential thing and you have to do it if you're going to keep the type of democracy and political system we want to have, or to change it in the direction that you want to change it.

Greg Abazorius: What do you tell others in terms of hope and optimism for the future?

Nicole Price: You can never give up hope. If you don't have hope, we've got nothing. That being said, it is really hard. So, I'm a big proponent of taking your own time to ground yourself, and then actually think about and look toward the future.

Price notes a record number of Black women running for U.S. Congress and more young people getting involved in voting among encouraging signs for the future. She and the other panelists also stress that voting for a U.S. President is only one way to get involved.

Courtney Wright: We all watched Schoolhouse Rock, how a bill becomes a law, those little videos. Later, you learn more about all the other ways that systematically you can be counted before you vote.

Wright points to the importance of the census, as well as working with your local representatives to be considered and ensure that funding and other help is sent to your area.

Courtney Wright: If you actually have representatives that represent the people in your community—the linkages before you even vote—it gives people something to focus on leading up to an election. You can make your voice heard by linking with an organization and groups that have the power to move the conversation up higher and not just get stuck on your one vote every four years or every two years or every one year. There are constantly people working on ways to level the playing field and make things more equal.

Lauren Creamer points out that Julia Mejia, a first-time candidate for office, won the December 2019 Boston City Council race by a single vote after a recount.

Lauren Creamer: Even the seemingly small action of casting your vote in a local election truly matters. Our students live in a city where the governing body has such power over their experience in our community. If they're not participating in that election and not casting their vote, then they're missing out on something that they could truly contribute to, even in the smallest of ways.

The group is asked if there has been a moment that has made them especially proud from a civic engagement standpoint.

Kristen Rosero: I had a student email me a picture of herself voting this week and that made me ridiculously happy. I also had a student email me with questions about filling out her request for a mail-in ballot and that she also wanted to help her father with his. Another student was emailing me saying how she was kind of anxious about going to the polls with her mother who's in a wheelchair, but she was determined to go. And I just love that I've gotten those personal stories from students in my class this semester. They're doing it and they're going to be doing it.

Allison Lange: I've been really excited about the ways that, despite the pandemic, we've been able to commemorate the passage of the 19th amendment this year. And there's a rise of women's engagement in politics in general right now. They’re running for office on a much greater scale and they are also donating to campaigns in a way that they never have before.

Courtney Wright: I think with Ayanna Pressley and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and others—women are fighting back. And they're taking the stuff that people say about them being bossy or whatever, and they're reframing it in their own way. It kind of turned it into a girl-power movement. They’ve galvanized and inspired people and shown that votes and getting involved do matter.

Nicole Price: I’m also so inspired by the number of women who are running. But I reflect especially on the mothers of Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis [Sybrina Fulton and Lucy McBath, respectively], who decided to get involved and run for office. To me, that is a great moment of courage and of hope, that you could take such a personal tragedy and then work with your community to prevent the type of thing that happened [to their sons].

Lauren Creamer: So many women are running for office right now. I'm just totally inspired by the generation of people that are coming next into office. Anything that we can do to encourage our students to get involved I think will make that group exponentially grow and really change the face of our political system.

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