Author: YES!

Over the past several years, media pundits have repeatedly documented Gen Z’s unique engagement with politics. Nearly three-fourths of “Zoomers,” the generation born after 1996, are involved in a social or political cause. They are the age demographic with the highest likelihood of being politically motivated to participate in boycotts, and almost 75% of them believe that being “politically engaged is important to [their] identity.” However, where they lack political presence is at the polls. If voting is considered to be a baseline criteria for being “politically engaged,” the percentage of Zoomers that fit the bill would drop from...

During Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month in May, students across the country shut down college campuses and spurred mass movement for a free Palestine. Younger generations are significantly more pro-Palestine than their elders, and according to a November 2023 GenForward survey, younger Asian Americans are the demographic group most likely to sympathize with Palestinians and to believe that the United States is too supportive of Israel. The legacy of U.S. wars waged throughout Asia has historically shaped generations of solidarity-building between Asian Americans and all peoples facing the brunt of U.S. militarism. And as the U.S. continues...

Being a Palestinian journalist has never been easy, but Israel’s escalation of violence against members of the press in Gaza is unprecedented, according to press freedom advocates. While global solidarity has offered some help to those documenting events in the field, their efforts remain overshadowed by increasing danger and continued bloodshed. Gaza is the deadliest place on Earth to be a journalist today. More than 100 journalists and media workers have been killed in Israeli airstrikes on their homes or vehicles or in attacks by invading Israeli forces since early October 2023, according to the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate. The...

In Monroe, Georgia, on July 31, 1946, “The Savannah Tribune” reported a “mass lynching,” in which a “mob of 20 or more men, who lined up two Negro men and their wives in the woods, shot them to death.” This horrific practice was as uniquely American in the 1940s as mass shootings are today. The consistency with which they occurred in natural spaces, especially in the South, maintains lasting effects on how African Americans engage with the outdoors. Systematic barriers, such as socioeconomic status, access to transportation, and Jim Crow laws further compounded to exclude African Americans from natural...

On November 8, my daughter, Samantha Sencer-Mura, a professional educator, became the first Japanese American elected as a representative from her district to the Minnesota State Legislature. And yet the story of our family and community is not necessarily one of democratic celebration. In 1898, my grandfather came here from Japan, forbidden by laws to become a citizen or own property. During WWII, my parents and their families were imprisoned by the United States government in concentration camps placed throughout desolate areas of the American West. My parents were natural-born citizens from Seattle and Los Angeles, 11 and 15...