Empirically, activities that promote education and research about poverty result in youth activism that engages the government and results in change

When young people engage in social critique they begin to denaturalize inequality and question attributions that locate the source of failure inside the person. They begin to change the narrative about the intelligence and worth of young people of color. They construct increasingly complex and more adaptive explanations for and responses to their social environment. When paired with the kinds of collective action found in youth organizing, the developmental changes that ensue are not merely inside the head. Action in the public square is significant because it can catalyze a shift in social relations . The interactional space, for example, where Bianca and Lucy spoke back to the district officials who closed their school, much like the space where Denise addressed the Oakland School Board and Luis and Gabriela patiently reasoned with their principal, was powerful because of their claims to be seen and heard. This rests on a view of development that privileges one’s roles and visibility within a community, where identities are produced by the way people position themselves and are positioned by others.14 The shift toward understanding youth as political beings is not just about their own development, but also about what it can catalyze for broader changes in society. This book’s case studies of young people and their organizing campaigns demonstrate the interdependence of youth development and democratic renewal. Part I showed how youth and institutions benefit when youth experience intentional opportunities to critique their sociopolitical worlds and take action to address problems. The case of Luis and Gabriela documented their experience of a classroom project where the goal was to denaturalize the social order of Roosevelt High and invite students to change that social order. Luis and Gabriela jumped at this opportunity with enthusiasm and articulated a critique of the racism and cultural myopia that existed at the school. Case studies of DREAM Activism and Padres & Jóvenes Unidos showed the broader kinds of impact young people can have when sustained in the context of social movements. Campaigns for immigrant rights and to end the school-to-jail track show contemporary examples where youth of color build power that changes the cultural and political landscape. Later, in a kind of reverse case, I discussed the kinds of problems that ensue when young people are not at the table for highstakes school reform decisions. Although the closure of Jefferson High School motivated activism by a cadre of students, it also had damaging consequences for many of their peers. Taken together, the case studies lend empirical evidence to the argument of this book: Young people are political beings who, when offered the right opportunity structure (and sometimes even when not), can marshal their political critiques into sustained action that is good for the actors and good for society.