I am eternally grateful to two real writers and good friends whose encouragement on this journey made all the difference: Cleo Wade and Touré. Cleo’s selflessness is humbling and, on the journey of writing this book, she helped me articulate what I needed and gave me the confidence that I knew what I was doing. One evening in New York, Touré reminded me my voice did actually matter and I had something to say—and furthermore, people would want to read it.
To the groupchat that became my cover art focus group, Alyse Newhouse, Maude Okrah, and Kathy Leflore, and to Christopher Huntley, who endured multiple early terrible drafts of my introduction, thank you for lending your eyes and ears and as always for your friendship.
To my partner in crime, Shawn, who forced me to work on this book while on planes, trains, and in automobiles, thank you for not letting up on me. Thank you for reading my edits, telling me when something was terrible, and participating in my voice recording sessions. You are the gift that keeps on giving, my love.
To my mother, my biggest cheerleader, who has never not been in my corner, thank you for supporting me in my development as the independent, outspoken human being that I am. Without you, I probably wouldn’t have been interrupting that man on TV, he would not have told me to shut up, and we would not have this book.
Finally, to my students at the Harvard IOP and at USC’s Center for the Political Future, please know you all are brilliant, and I am immensely grateful for the symbiotic relationship you each fostered in the classroom. This book is a culmination of the critical thinking conversations we had throughout my fellowship at your respective institutions. Thank you for helping change the world.
About the Author
SYMONE D. SANDERS is a senior advisor for former vice president Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign. She also serves as principal of the 360 Group LLC, where she provides strategic communications guidance to organizations, businesses, individuals, campaigns, and candidates and helps clients find sound solutions to tough political and social problems.
Sanders is the former chair of the Coalition of Juvenile Justice Emerging Leaders Committee and former member of the Federal Advisory Committee on Juvenile Justice, where she worked to raise the profile of young voices in the fight for juvenile justice reform and bring millennial perspectives to policy conversations. Sanders is a former CNN political commentator and served as a resident fellow at the Institute of Politics at Harvard’s Kennedy School in 2018 and the University of Southern California’s Center for the Political Future in 2019.
Copyright
no, you shut up. Copyright © 2020 by Symone D. Sanders. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
first edition
Cover design by Joanne O'Neill
Cover photograph by Jonathan Hebert Photography
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.
Digital Edition MAY 2020 ISBN: 978-0-06-294269-2
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-294268-5
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* Harvard Institute of Politics, Spring 2018 Youth Poll, April 2018, https://iop.harvard.edu/spring-2018-poll.
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