I first heard about Derrick Ashong from my friend Baratunde Thurston, who is a comedian, "vigilante pundit," and political activist (in addition to his work as the web editor at The Onion.)
Baratunde and Derrick went to Harvard together in the late '90s, and both have emerged as strong political voices for their generation (as an aside, MA Street Teamer Kyle De Beausset also knows Derrick through Harvard-related channels).
Baratunde pointed out a YouTube interview with Derrick that's been tearing up the Inter-webs for the past couple of weeks. A man named Mike interviewed Derrick in Los Angeles at a Barack Obama rally, and from the sound of Mike's questions, you can tell that Mike had some doubts as to Derrick's ability to answer him intelligently. In fact, he sounds downright dubious, with a little bit of condescension thrown in. And as a young person involved in the press and in politics, I can't blame Mike; there is a strong prevailing perception that young people are uneducated about politics and only have emotional rather than intellectual responses to issues.
Turned out, though, that Derrick, an Ivy League-educated West African immigrant, had a smart, eloquent and non-combative response to Mike's probing questions. In the video, he explains how, as the son of a pediatrician, he is particularly interested in Obama's healthcare plan, as it includes a public/private partnership that wouldn't exclusively put the burden of payment on the government. He also doesn't appear fazed by Mike's sometimes-insistent questioning; rather, he listens patiently and gives reasoned, polite responses rather than relying on the knee-jerk angry form of discourse so popular in our Jerry Springer-ized, Crossfire-ified nation.
When I watched the video, I was proud to see a young person talk about politics off-the-cuff in such an admirably informed fashion. It was added 12 days ago, and as of press time it had been viewed nearly 220,000 times. Pretty good for just a random interview with some kid on the street, right? You can check it out here or below:
Derrick put his own response to the video on YouTube. In it, he states that Mike's slightly aggressive style of questioning "wound up being a blessing, because it was an opportunity to really get into why I think this really is the right candidate for the right time." He speaks movingly of how deeply he values the right to vote, saying, "Where I was born, even though we are a proud nation...you know, we've had a lot of political strife, and sadly, the entire span of my life up until I was in my early twenties, we couldn't vote. Nobody could vote." He also explains that while he was born in West Africa, he and his family moved to Brooklyn so that his father could pursue medical education in the United States. When it came time for Derrick's family to return to their homeland, a coup made that option untenable and dangerous. Instead, he and his family lived in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, places that he describes as being less than democratically ideal. You can check out his video response in its entirety here or below:
Derrick also goes by D.N.A. when he's performing with his band, Soulfege. They describe themselves as "Afro-Diasporic Groovalicious Funkadociousness." The band spearheaded a movement called Take Back the Mic, which seeks to create political and artistic change through hip-hop. In his video response to the original YouTube interview, Derrick talks about taking back the mic in the variety of spheres, not just on a literal stage. He also mentions that we have the technology to metaphorically take back the mic. I take this to mean that we can broadcast our own powerful messages via web videos, blogs--and, yes, through citizen journalism, just like we're doing on the Street Team.
Derrick describes himself as an independent voter, but I think it's safe to say that he's a liberal-learning independent voter. I'd like to showcase wise, erudite youth from other political corners, too (yes, conservative youth, I'm talking to you, too!) so if you can point me to a video or website that gets you excited about young people and politics, hit me up with a message or a comment on think.mtv.com.
Have a great week, everybody. Keep reading, writing, watching and, mostly importantly, asking questions.
Don't sleep. ;)
Peace,
Sara B. in NYC