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THE YEAR OF THE UNDERDOG A Feeling: Activists for Change intheAUC By Clarissa Brooks "Where there is power, there is resistance Michel Foucault, French philosopher The 21st century can feel like living wi th ghosts. Activism in this day and age can feel like living out a legacy that no one can pin down. Trying to live up to phantoms and outlines of great men and women can seem like trying to catch smoke. Chipping away at oppres sion, white supremacy and the patriar chy have been the long-fraught battles of countless nameless ancestors. In 2018, it can seem impossible, un comfortable and ill-fated to step into a legacy that has killed many before you. To declare to the world that you will put yourself on the line for others can feel like walking blindly in a dark room, grasping at ghosts. There is no guide to organizing, no guide to the do's and don’ts of being an activist in the age of cancel culture in which so cial media tries to end the careers or no longer support people who have made problematic statements. The terms of insurrection are catchy, the language of revolution and change are easy to say at panels but rarely are they met with action. Rarely are these words met with matched energy and the sweaty passion that it demands. Few can illustrate what it means to be a part of history. “I work to liberate the people so that future generations will have a world free of systems that hinder their happiness,” says Mar’Taize Gaines, a graduating se nior from Morehouse College. “[The] work looks like visceral feelings of joy and pain! The work is more related to an inner feeling than to an outward ex pression." As a sophomore at Morehouse Col lege, Gaines joined a small organiza tion called AUC Shut It Down, where he found a space to organize around fighting for black liberation. Outside of his organizing work, Gaines also was a residential advisor for three years and a proud member of Morehouse’s Glee Club for all four years. Through his own work to liberate black folks, Gaines wants to create a better world. He will continue to do this at Vanderbilt Univer sity next year through a Ph.D. program in Sociology. In 2015, Gaines and eight other mem bers of AUC Shut It Down interrupted then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The group of organizers looked to hold Clinton accountable for her tokeniza- tion of black college students and her assumption that they would support her candidacy for president. The direct ac tion led to national coverage and much pushback from students, alum, and faculty around what blackness and the Democratic Party are guilty of in the face of a conservative majority. Yet, it is not the national attention or notoriety that keeps Gaines involved as an organizer and scholar. Gaines stays for the momentary connection to a taste of unadulterated liberation that is hard to verbalize. "The organizers that I have met, the an cestors whose work I continue, and the future I fight for! What keeps me going is a feeling. It’s a feeling of euphoria that vibrates through the community in our highest moments. That’s what keeps me going,” Gaines says. The want to change the world is far off and hard to conceptualize. For black students in the AUC, it can seem eas iest to stay the course than to travel down an unbeaten path. For others, the unbeaten path is the only way to freedom. Mary Pat-Hector is a giant among men and women. A rising senior at Spelman College, Hector’s name was known be fore she arrived on campus, her legacy as an activist in her hometown of Litho- nia, Georgia, is the thing of legends. MAN OF THE YEAR Fighting to work around gun control 1 since the age of 11, Hector is not new j to the call for justice and speaking up ; in a world not ready for your voice. Hec-1 tor ran for City Council in Stonecrest, j. Georgia, this past year at the age of 19 i and is currently the National Action /; Network's Youth Director alongside Rev. ; Al Sharpton. “By the time I was 15, I had attended lj more funerals than graduations,” Hec-;| tor says. “Following working on gun vio- lence where I grew up, I got connected J with the National Action Network where j: I became vocal on issues impacting people of color such as police bru tality, student hunger, gun violence and more.” Hector's run for City Council in Stone- crest made na tional news. A college student at the age of 1 9 was L mak- i n g a new path, walking blindly into a legacy of change that was unknown. During the spring semes ter, Hector’s AUC chapter of NAN (National Action Network) was able to lead an effective hunger strike that led to the creation