Thread by @JewhadiTM

Isra Hirsi Is 16, Unbothered, and “Saving the Planet”

Hirsi is the co-founder of the U.S. Youth Climate Strike and the daughter of @IlhanMN
vice.com/en_us/article/…

“It was only this year, in January 2019, that Isra founded the U.S. Youth Climate Strike—the American arm of a global youth climate change movement—alongside TWELVE-YEAR-OLD Denver ‘activist’ Haven Coleman (who has since stepped away, making Isra the sole executive director).”

“In March, the organization’s largest strike inspired an estimated 1.6M students across 120 countries to skip school in order to demand action on climate change from adults in power.”

“Since then, she has organized locally and nationally for environmental justice with a focus on carving out space for young people of color within the movement.”

Most recently, she’s been rallying students to participate in the global climate strike on September 20, during which she’ll be speaking at the Minneapolis march.

“This puts Isra in a tricky position: She’s a symbol of supposed racial and religious equality in the U.S.—the kind that makes white women grin proudly at Black Muslim girls“ ...

“... and a teenager trying to figure out who she is in the wake of her mother’s own ‘colossal assertion of identity’, all while staring down the serious task of literally saving the world.”

(Oh my.)

ear ago, Isra didn’t have a sense of climate urgency, though she’s been active in local social justice movements ever since she attended her first protest at six years old. Later, in middle school, she was mainly focused on the Black Lives Matter movement.

“At age 12, with her family and thousands of organizers, she helped shut down the Mall of America to demand justice for Jamar Clark, a 24-year-old black man killed in 2015 by 2 police officers who weren’t charged with his murder.” (*he resisted arrest & grabbed an officer’s gun)

(*In 2010 Clark received a felony conviction for 1st degree aggravated robbery, resulting in a 41 month prison sentence-it is unclear how much Clark served. Clark faced a 2nd conviction for terroristic threats after threatening to burn down the apartment of an ex-girlfriend.)

("He threw a brick through his ex-girlfriend's window and threatened to burn her apartment unit down -- leaving behind a trail of lighter fluid to prove it, according to court documents." In 2015, he was on probation for this crime.)

(*A Domestic Abuse No Contact Order was issued for Clark, requiring him to stay away from the ex-girlfriend until 2020. Additionally, Clark was awaiting trial for a high-speed chase arrest from July 2015.)

Back to the story:

“It wasn’t until she [Isra] joined a high school environmental club during her freshman year that she learned how, at its core, climate change affects communities of color the most.”

“Black people, for example, are almost twice as likely as other residents to die during a heatwave in Los Angeles due to segregation and a lower likelihood of having access to air conditioners.“

“Isra earnestly described her arrival to climate consciousness as ‘really, really late in the game.’ She was 15.”

“Her advocacy has nothing to do with a deep love for the outdoors and everything to do with the communities disproportionately hurt by climate change—

—not because their favorite rafting river is drying up, but because their drinking water is poisoned and the air they breathe is killing them. To her, this is the only climate advocacy that makes sense.”

“[They’re] talking about how much they love grass and their lakes—I can't connect with you on that,” she said of white-led environmental groups. “So it's a subtle We don't want you here because they talk about things, knowing people like me can't relate.”