As you know, this month is Black History Month. I’m going to be doing a 4-part series dedicated to black hero’s and heroine’s of not only Black Americans, but of all Americans. Welcome to part 1! My first hero is recent, as he has spent his entire career making history. You may know him as Van Jones, but I like to call him:
THE SUPERMAN OF POLITICAL COMMENTARY
Alright, so his superpowers aren’t his physical strength or that he can shoot lasers from his eyes, but his intellectual brilliance and his empathy for others are what make him Superman in my eyes. Some may be thinking, “well, that’s lame,” but real heroes don’t need a superpower to impact people’s lives. And that’s a very important distinction to make.
Anthony Kapel “Van” Jones was born on September 20, 1968 in Jackson, Tennessee. He has a twin sister, Angela Jones, and his parents worked in the school system; his mother a teacher and his father a Principal. According to Angela, Van was a geek and very much in his own world growing up. He attended the University of Tennessee Martin and Yale Law School, as he went on to be a lawyer and civil rights activist. The list of organizations that Van Jones has either been a part of or has founded himself is incredible. Since 2013, you may have seen Van Jones on many of CNN’s political segments and panels. In CNN’s profile for Jones, he is the founder of not-for-profit organizations that include Rebuild The Dream, The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights (which is unique because it is a hotline and lawyer-referral center for victims of police abuse), Color of Change, and the Dream Corps. The Dream Corps has taken initiatives such as #cut50, #yeswecode and #Greenforall. The first aforementioned initiative is a 10 year plan to cut the prison population in half by turning mass incarceration into a mainstream voting issue, forming alliances and popularizing alternatives. The #yeswecode “aims to train 100,000 low opportunity youth to become high level programmers” according to the CNN profile. The third initiative is inspired through Jones’ passion for creating green jobs that are going to fight global warming, but these green jobs are meant to train people that are in poverty and lift them out of it.
And if that’s all you think Van Jones has done…
In 2009, Mr. Jones was former President Obama’s Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation in the White House’s Council on Environmental Quality. All of Jones’ initiatives and organizational pursuits involve the environment, economics and civil rights. He is also a best-selling author, having written two books, Rebuild The Dream and The Green Collar Economy. The latter is about how we are going to be depending on green entrepreneurs and innovators to create green jobs for Americans. Plus, Jones has a special series on CNN called “The Messy Truth”. This series explores voting attitudes of Trump, Clinton, and even Sanders supporters during the election and post-election. Oh, and he was total BFF’s with the late Prince, who donated to many of Jones’ organizations. While taking on the world, Jones is married to Jana Carter and has two children.
What really makes Jones a superhero is that he listens to people, even if he doesn’t agree with them. Ever since Trump won the election, democrats and those on the left have gotten on the band wagon of assuming the character of all Trump voters is the same as the character of those who identify with the Alt-Right, and even with Trump himself. Jones stresses that if democrats and progressives want to take back the House, the Senate and the Presidency, we have to listen to those who aren’t bigots (which according to Jones is many trump supporters), but still voted for Trump. Van Jones was one of the first political commentators on the left to pull himself up by the bootstraps and get to work. He was upset by the election results, as all progressives were, but he didn’t stay focused on the fact that it happened. Jones reached out to Americans in many states that voted for Trump and focused on the “why.” It’s very impressive how Jones uses empathy to start conversations, all over America, about our division and how we can unite under common values. He says something very interesting in an interview with Rolling Stone in December of 2016. While explaining why he takes a “values” approach over a “policy” approach to uniting Americans, Van states:
“There were five things on the ballot on November 8th, 2016: the presidency, the Senate, the House, the Supreme Court and the character of the country. Progressives lost all five. But the thing that hurts the most is losing on the character of the country – the idea we're going to be divisive as a country.”
Van Jones is not a man who sees the world, or people, in black or white terms. And it’s funny, because all of my psychology professors are constantly saying “people are messy.” I can’t think of any reasons why the truth wouldn’t be messy too.
I’m proud to kick-start this series with the wonderful Van Jones. I hope after this article you think he’s just as much a superhero as I do.
(Check out my article next week on Frederick Douglass! He needs some love, especially since our President doesn’t seem to know anything about him.)
