Ella Baker Center Blog

I flew into the USA alone at the age of 5, with questionable legality and overwhelming confusion, because the Iranian government would not allow entire families to travel together.  My father, whom I had not seen in 4 years, met me at the airport and took me to the first of many small shared apartments we lived in around the poor suburbs of Sacramento.  I attended 4 elementary schools in the area, and every one of them took field trips to the Capitol building.  As a child, I remember walking through the well kept lawns and secretly feeding the squirrels.  I never paid much attention when we toured inside the building.  As a poor, Brown immigrant, I never felt there was room for me there anyway.  We had our place and the groomed, suited White men in the building had theirs.

It did not take me long to find my political voice, but it took many, many years to find where to direct it.  Despite all the Schoolhouse Rocks videos of my public school youth, the legislative process always seemed out of my reach.  As an adult, I hope to demystify that process for others, so they cannot only know their own power, but how to utilize it.

In late June, the Green Collar Jobs Campaign at the Ella Baker Center, in collaboration with numerous other organizations, held a Building the Green Economy Advocacy Day. We filled the halls of the Capitol building with people of color in green job training and employment programs.  We walked from one legislator’s office to another, explaining through individual stories why maintaining California’s Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32) and implementing it equitably is essential not only to the economy and environment, but to the welfare of our communities.

Too often, we are overlooked in what we perceive as the closed-door politics of Sacramento and Washington.  But in truth, the doors are open, and the more times we walk through them, the more impact we have.  I felt honored and proud to have participated in the Green Economy Day, and I hope those who came with us continue to advocate for their political interests.  California is truly a diverse state, and all of our communities can impact our laws.  We have the direct power to protect our jobs, economy, health and environments by voting NO on the dirty energy proposition (prop 23), a measure backed by Texas oil that would kill AB 32.  But we also have the power to talk to our representatives, to influence their decisions with our individual stories.  After all, our assembly members and senators are elected to protect the interests and ensure the well-being of all Californians, and we hold both their paychecks and job security in our hands.