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ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVIST XIYE BASTIDA SAYS “OK, DOOMERS” by Evalena Labayen

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ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVIST XIYE BASTIDA SAYS “OK, DOOMERS” by Evalena Labayen Article taken from interviewmagazine.com ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVIST XIYE BASTIDA SAYS “OK, DOOMERS” By Evalena Labayen Published December 10, 2019 Photo by Pamela Elizarraras. Courtesy of Extinction Rebellion. The “Ok, boomer” trend taking over social media—used to silence our grandparents and politicians alike—needs to be corrected, according to 17- year-old, Mexico-born indigenous activist Xiye Bastida. “Our biggest problem is not denial. Our biggest problem is apathy, and that’s what doomers are,” she says. “They write articles in New York Magazine saying, ‘We’re all going to die,’ so, ‘Okay, doomer.’” Yet Bastida, who immigrated from Mexico four years ago to help motivate Americans to combat climate change, urges that the climate crisis does not form a divide between generations, but rather a bridge. Bastida helped implement September’s Climate Strike in New York City in conjunction with Extinction Rebellion, Fridays for Our Future, and several other environmental organizations drawing an estimated seven million participants across generations. Her voice undeniably stands at the front lines of the movement, rightfully representing indigenous and immigrant people, but she’s too humble to say that about herself, crediting Greta Thunberg as her inspiration to strike (as do we all). Bastida has continued leading school strikes on Fridays outside the United Nations for the past nineteen weeks, and she has led a traffic blockade in peaceful protest for Extinction Rebellion. It’s all quite a feat for someone whose college applications are due before the New Year. Bastida arrives from another school strike outside the UN just before meeting me in the Walker Hotel lobby to talk over a couple coffees—hers, of course, in a sustainable travel mug. “I’m already balancing activism and school, so I just have to prioritize, I guess,” she says. “When it’s midterm week, I’m not going to engage in international events.” Now, she’s just waiting for her next strike. ——— EVALENA LABAYEN: How are you? XIYE BASTIDA: Just came from the strike. LABAYEN: Was there already a strike today? BASTIDA: Yeah. I mean, there’s a strike every Friday, but they’re small strikes. LABAYEN: Where was it? BASTIDA: At the UN. But today was different because a cop came, and he told us, “You can’t protest here.” And we have been in that same location every Friday for 49 weeks. LABAYEN: Did you tell him, like, “Hey.” BASTIDA: Yeah. He was like, “This time is different because someone called 911.” Kids protesting for climate, and they call 911. LABAYEN: Oh, “Those kids out there are really dangerous trying to save the environment.” How long have you all been out there? BASTIDA: 49 weeks. Not me, but my friend started the strike on December 13th, Alexandria [Villaseñor]. My first strike was March 15th, the first global strike. And I started weekly striking 19 weeks ago. LABAYEN: Did you get started because of her? BASTIDA: I didn’t know her, actually. We met at the first strike. I met so many amazing activists on the streets literally striking. I think that’s the coolest part. LABAYEN: I saw that you’ve been striking since high school, leading out 600 students outside for the March 15th first global strike. Was that the entire school? BASTIDA: No. We have 1,200, but then for September 20th, over a thousand walked out. I think that 600 is very impressive for the first time ever with no permission. Because for September 20th, we got every public school to allow kids to strike. That was us going to the DOE [Department of Education], sending emails, making calls for a month. LABAYEN: When you started your environmental club, did you ever imagine it getting to be this nationwide of a movement? BASTIDA: It wasn’t something that was even in my mind. Sunrise [Movement] was already there. Extinction Rebellion had not started yet. So, for my environmental club, what I did first was to take kids to Albany and to City Hall just to talk to representatives and tell them, “We kids care about this. What are you doing?” We lobbied for the CLCPA [the Climate and Community Leaders Protection Act] and the Dirty Buildings Bill. After that, then I heard about the strikes. First of all, I heard about Greta [Thunberg]. This girl who showed up at COP24 who was in Dallas with her speech. And it was just amazing to see that somebody had the platform to say these things that I didn’t think were possible, for a kid to be out there and say, “What are you doing?” LABAYEN: Yeah. Greta Thunberg definitely inspired me. You were on the dock the day that she arrived in New York? BASTIDA: Yeah. LABAYEN: From that moment, did you kind of really feel this whole global movement building around you? That you’re present in this historic moment with her changing history? Or was it just like, “Oh, cool. We got more people now”? BASTIDA: [Laughs] Yeah. I don’t see myself or Alexandria or other activists that get media attention as the organizers for activists because I see the same energy that we have in everybody. That’s what’s amazing. For some reason, we’ve gotten platforms to speak, and Alexandria and I were both at the Youth Climate Summit, at the UN Climate Summit. We’re both going to COP25 with other activists. I’m sure you’ve heard about Jamie Margolin. I guess it’s because we have the most time to do it, that we can be vocal about it everywhere we go. LABAYEN: The media has actually been comparing you to Greta, calling you “America’s Greta Thunberg.” BASTIDA: Yeah, which is weird because I’m not even American. It is awesome in the sense that people know who she is, and when they say, “Xiye is the American girl who’s doing this,” it’s like, “Oh, my gosh.” But I also don’t want to say, “I’m the one doing the most work,” because Greta is the one doing the most work I would say. I am not going to be here and say, “Oh, yeah. I started the environmental movement in the U.S.,” because that’s not true at all. Xiuhtezcatl [Martinez] has been speaking at the UN since he was eight years old. Jamie [Margolin] started Zero Hour in 2015. LABAYEN: You do have this whole different perspective than Greta has because she’s from Europe, while you, I would say, have the benefit of this intersectionality between being indigenous and being an activist. The two always go hand in hand. BASTIDA: Yeah. They do. LABAYEN: Do you feel that does give you a broader perspective and understanding of the situation? BASTIDA: I definitely think that. Being raised with this notion, this philosophy that you take care of the earth because that’s your job. That’s what you have to do. That’s the way we can feel best about what we’re doing and about ourselves and our community. I thought that was something everyone thought because I was raised that way. So, when you realize that people are drilling the earth, killing biodiversity, cutting down trees just for profit and not thinking about anything else, it was just shocking, and I couldn’t believe that was real. I couldn’t believe that was a thing. So, I think that bringing indigenous cosmology and philosophy and practices into the conversation are a crucial part because indigenous people have been living this way since . LABAYEN: They’re the original protectors of the earth. BASTIDA: Yeah. Original protectors of the earth. LABAYEN: You bring up being in Mexico and seeing the climate change there, and then coming to New York and seeing the effects of Hurricane Sandy, how they relate, and how this is so global. Do you think New Yorkers have the same kind of perspective, or do you think it takes traveling to really see that? BASTIDA: Being able to travel—because, also, I’m half Chilean—I used to go to Chile a lot more than now. Now when I travel, I go back to Mexico. But it’s definitely having a global perspective that plays such a big role in the understanding of how big this is. A lot of people don’t have that privilege of traveling. Also, Americans who go to Mexico go to Cancún, which is like a mini-America, so it’s not even like real Mexico. LABAYEN: [Laughs] Yeah, exactly. BASTIDA: I think that traveling definitely plays big role in my understanding of it. But what I saw is that nobody really connected the dots between Sandy and the climate crisis. When I talked to my friends about it, they would say things like, “Oh, yeah. We didn’t have school for a week. It was cool.” Or, “The power went out. That had never happened.” And, in my house, power used to go out every time it rained, which I think happens in a lot of places that are not cities. LABAYEN: I think that this is a really important thing people have to understand. Because my dad’s Bolivian, we went to Bolivia two years ago. And I just saw this entirely different way people approach activism and the climate and taking care of the earth. I think it takes a lot for people to really separate themselves from this weird American mentality of, “It’s not happening here, so it’s whatever.” BASTIDA: This morning I was listening to the radio. You know what they were talking about? About air conditioning and who runs the air conditioning in the house.
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