Anyone who says young people do not have a say in the 2004 election has not yet read the book, How to Get Stupid White Men Out of Office: the anti-politics, un-boring guide to power.
Marisol Enyart, a UNM student double majoring in Latin American Studies and Political Science and president of the UNM chapter United Students Against Sweatshops is a contributor of the book. She is now on tour to promote the book.
Besides Enyart, 11 other young activists and organizers united to write the book. They call themselves the League of Pissed-off Voters, and they are spreading the word at various universities and community events throughout the country.
How to Get Stupid White Men Out of Office is aimed at young people to show them how they can make a difference. The book is easy to read, humorous and gives 20 examples of how young people have impacted the political world.
Co-editor Adrienne Maree Brown, writes that How to Get Stupid White Men Out of Office is not a manual for changing the world, it's examples of how individuals have changed their world. They said that from it, people will immediately be able to start bringing about change.
"As young people and people of color, we have to come to realize just how much the odds are stacked against ourselves and our families," she said in an e-mail interview. "It is increasingly harder to pay for school as students, the extremes to which we deal with as a result of being minorities are increasingly more evident and it is increasingly more difficult to be taken serious as a young person. All of these challenges stacked against us give us one more reason to speak out. If we don't do it, no one will do it for us."
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Enyart said she hates politics but is an activist for changing the political world. In the book, she writes a piece titled, "Sweatshops, Hip Hop, and a Whole Lot of People for Grijalva" about the story of an extreme, Chicano grass-roots organizer named Ra£l Grijalva who was elected to U.S. Congress.
"Chicano groups, labor unions, environmental groups, social justice groups and people from disenfranchised neighborhoods all came together to form an exquisite coalition to support Ra£l," Enyart said. "While his opponent outspent him two to one, he beat her two to one and is now rated the most progressive congressman by www.progressivepunch.org."
Alma Rosa Silva-Ba§uelos, another contributor from Albuquerque and a UNM alumna, wrote the piece titled, "Takin' it Back to the Old School."
"The reason I titled it 'Takin it Back to the Old School' is because there needs to be campaign reform," Silva-Ba§uelos said. "Back in the day, election officials or politicos used to go door-to-door. It used to be our family, so (politicos) were close to the issues at home."
Saturday Enyart and Silva-Ba§uelos will help host a book release party for How to Get Stupid White Men Out of Office - written by Davey D, Annie Koh, Malia Lazu, Jackie Bray, Aya de Le¢n, Mattie Weiss, Enyart, Piper Anderson, Bouapha Toommaly, Silva-Ba§uelos, Adrienne Brown and William Upski Wimsatt - at the Albuquerque Center for Peace and Justice at 7 p.m. There will be a book signing, food, music and a book raffle. Admission is $1.
"One main reason the book was written is to inspire and motivate young people to get out and vote, so we are not affected by decisions that are made without our input," Silva-Ba§uelos said.
