For Me, Organizing Started in Chicago

By Josh Joh-Jung
New Organizing Project blogger

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OMG!!! DX it’s the final blog post for the New Organizing Project: Generation 2!!!!!  Well first off lemme just say thank you all for faithfully reading our blog posts and being patient with us throughout the year. We covered a lot of issues and came a long way since our first blog posts.

So once again, thank ya’ll very much for the love and support. Frealz.

Now for a final post, I wanna let ya’ll know what calls me to the movement. In the other posts we ask you what calls you to the movement. Aight? Lehgo 😀

The up and coming FYSH youth leader & NOP Generation 2 blogger, Josh, when he was just a year old.

Aight so I know some of ya’ll must’ve been wondering, there ain’t exactly too many 18 year olds out there who are really concerned about social change in America. Most folks my age would be worried about which celebrity is going out with who or which game is coming out w/e. So I’ll break it down for ya’ll aight?

What brought me into the movement was the opportunity to make a change in my community and to actually see it happen before my eyes. That is what had me jump into the movement for social and political change. It actually began about a year before I moved to Chicago.

I was talking with a couple of homies and homegirls, we were just kicking it and whatnot. I don’t know how but it got to the subject of college and I was just an idiot about it. Not gonna lie… it wasn’t really a concern of mine at the time. Then one of my homegirls, one of the smartest ones I knew said she wasn’t going to college. I was flabbergasted (ooo nice word right there :D) and I was thinking why on earth would she not? She was smart and had so much potential – it just didn’t make any sense.

So I did what any good friend would do. I ragged on her for being lazy. Then she finally told me that she couldn’t go because she was undocumented.

Well, needless to say I was real worried you know? I mean it was sad that my homegirl couldn’t get out of the ‘hood and go to college cause she didn’t have papers. Something about this situation wasn’t right. But back then there wasn’t anything I could do. I didn’t know what I could do. But that all changed when I moved to Chicago and found KRCC. Their mission of education, immigration reform, helping the Korean American community and youth organizing appealed to me. I found my way of giving back to my friends, family and peers.

So as for issues that I am particularly compassionate about? It’d have to be immigration reform, economic reform and basically issues that address the suffering of people living in the United States. But my biggest passion is showing youth that we have a voice even when we are belittled because of our age, race, economic status and neighborhood.

Our generation, our voice and our ideas have the potential to revolutionize the world. We are much more knowledgeable and have powerful tools at our fingertips. Rising up to the challenge doesn’t have to wait until we graduate from college, have a job or after we make a lot of money.

Thank ya’ll so much once again, really. Without ya’ll this project wouldn’t have been possible. Being able to blog like this was an opportunity like no other. Felt the spectrum of how far our voice can go and how our opinions and these issues actually matter.

I’m thinking of starting a vlog, for info follow me on twitter.com/joh_boi

Peace, I’m out.