CNN political commentator and former Obama White House advisor Van Jones spoke to nearly 2,000 attendees at Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church in downtown Phoenix on Saturday.
Jones covered a variety of topics including his White House resignation, racism and the upcoming elections at Arizona State University’s fifth annual Delivering Democracy Lecture.
“Activism matters,” Rashad Shabazz, an associate professor of justice and social inquiry at the school of Social Transformation at ASU said after hosting the discussion with Jones. “Grassroots community work, work by people who are never identified and never acknowledged, it matters towards transforming societies.”
As a young activist, a 24-year-old Jones decided to focus on the importance of violence prevention, bringing bad cops to justice and shutting down abusive youth prisons in California.
After decades of working in law, he realized that he was “attending more funerals than graduations,” so he moved to politics and worked for then-senator Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential elections.
During the lecture, Jones mentioned his resignation from the White House and his controversial statements about Republicans.
“I became a target for the media,” he said. “I wasn’t going to ask Obama to defend me.”
To commemorate his friend Prince, Jones did not wear his iconic purple tie to the lecture. Prince, who would have been 59 years old on June 7, has been a role model for Jones. He recalls Prince being the only person to call him after his resignation from the White House.
“Prince was there for me when no one was,” Jones said.
During the Q&A session toward the end of the lecture, Jones responded to a question from the crowd about whether or not the country has made progress on rectifying racial injustice.
“We’ve made progress,” Jones said. “You can have two steps forward and one step back.”
Jones stressed the significance of this year’s election calling it the “most important election year of our lives.” He went on to say, “we spend a lot of time on stuff that doesn’t make any difference, let’s talk about real stuff — that’s how you win the democracy.”
He also said that in order to win the upcoming election, “we are going to have to do the work” and “if you don’t show up to vote you’re not going to win.”
Oscar Hernandez, a student studying public policy at ASU, decided to attend the lecture because he had been inspired by Jones when he had heard him speak previously.
“He’s one of those political figures that in a way preaches what I believe in,” he said. “There needs to be more dialogue in our communities and not just in politics.”
Hernandez is a DACA student and views democracy through a different lens.
“To me, it’s a reminder that since I don’t have the privilege [to vote] it’s up to the majority, or others, to vote for me,” he said.
Hernandez added, “People need to remember that they’re not only voting for themselves but others living in the same communities and also in different countries. Because I am an immigrant, I still remember everything about my own country and it’s hard to see people, as Americans, not realize how much power they have as a country.”
Contact Monique Artis at mmartis@asu.edu.
