Van Jones: "This Is Not Your Grandma's Environmental Movement Anymore"

By Ariane Conrad, The Rumpus. Posted February 5, 2009.

AC: Can you talk about the world-changing potential inherent in the roles of: 1. Father 2. Organizational founder/social entrepreneur, and 3. Author

VJ: Well, I think parenting is one of the most important jobs, because you can hit two or three generations with the values in your house and the traditions you establish. But I don't think I'm very good at it, and I don't know anybody who thinks they're very good at it. Probably almost everyone gets an A in grandparenting, but in parenting, if you get a B-minus you're doing pretty good.

Every morning, my son Cabral says to me, "Are you going on an airplane?" because he's trying to establish whether or not he's going to see me when he gets home from school. And when I say "yes," he says "why?" And I say, "Well, I gotta go fix the world." Recently, this answer stopped working, and he looks at me as I'm getting my suitcase together, and he asks: "Daddy, why do you have to fix the world?" There's no good answer for a 4 1/2-year-old.

AC: Is there a good answer for a 35-year-old?

VJ: You know, it's my calling. The difference between being 40 and being 30 is: when you're 30, you're driven. If you stay in it for another 10 years, by the time you're 40, you're either done or you're called. I don't feel driven anymore -- I feel called to do what I'm doing, to take the stands that I'm taking. It's not in my hands. I've been giving the same speech for eight years. It's not like suddenly I gave a much better speech and everyone started paying attention. No -- the world changed. Now some of us who had been saying things that were considered outlandish just two years ago, we have the microphone. It won't last. I'm probably in my 13th minute here -- I want to use it well. There's probably some grand plan ensuring that some of our species Hula-hoop and some people do political oratory.

AC: And social entrepreneurs and authors…?

VJ: Right. Well, building groups where people can work together is fun, and sometimes necessary, but it's not the most important thing. I think the most important thing is discovering an idea that moves you, and then letting people who are moved by that idea find each other and work together. A lot of times, people focus on the technical side -- "Oh, I've got to take a class on nonprofit development." Too few people allow themselves to think outside the box with regard to their issue areas.

As far as being an author. It's just starting to hit me. The other day, I met this kid from Morehouse College -- black school, black student, an African studies major, in the chocolate city Atlanta. He'd gotten really pissed off reading about all the horrific crimes and atrocities that have been inflicted upon African people since we got to these shores a few generations ago. Then somebody told him about this book that was written by someone in Oakland. He said the book was life-transforming for him because he was able to see a way to get solution-oriented and get into action. To not be so angry and not be so stopped by the past that he couldn't stand for the future.

AC: So the kid from Morehouse college is emblematic --

VJ: Of the folks who've gotten frustrated and cynical, who find something in the book that resonates. I think that for those of us who come from oppressed backgrounds and who do our work in marginalized communities, recovering our innocence is one of the most important acts of self-liberation and decolonization. Not letting the requirement that we adapt to impossible circumstances and unconscionable crimes leave us shackled to the kind of cynicism and armor such that we can't breathe and laugh and magnetize to ourselves all the genius and love and support that we need to transform the situation. That's probably the biggest challenge, is to recover our innocence.

AC: Let's talk about the book itself. You've said it before, but tell me the significance of The Green Collar Economy on the NYT best-seller list. And congratulations.

VJ: Well, congratulations to you, too. The book represents a lot of firsts. It's the first time that a book about green jobs has been on the best-seller lists. It's the first time a book by an African American environmental writer has been on the lists. It's also the first book by an African American writer on energy to get onto the best-seller lists. Its success is a breakthrough, and I hope it opens the floodgates for all kinds of people who don't look like the traditional enviro to write about these issues. I'd love to hear from Native Americans and Latinos and Persians, transgendered and disabled folks.

AC: I thought you might comment some on the organizing feat that got the book there.

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Ariane Conrad is a writer and editor based in Oakland, CA. She collaborated with Van Jones on the New York Times bestselling The Green Collar Economy (Harper One, 2008), and with Christabel Zamor on HOOPING! (forthcoming from Workman Publishing in June 2009).

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