Eight years: from now, to then. Broken down, these eight years represent an interval that outlines 2,920 days; more specifically illustrating the time between the initial commencement of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement in 2013, to the incredible momentum it has once again gained towards the end of March of 2020.

     Since then, systemic racism has only grown to be riddled with more hatred, affecting every facet of BIPOC in any given community with great overwhelming. Within a destination holding a much greater population, like the Bay Area, there are numerous organizations that build a sort of sanctuary to ensure that individuals district-wide are able to have their voices recognized, acknowledged, and taken into account in order to create an uplifting, motivating community that aids one another. 

San Jose’s Local Heroes

     San Jose Strong is a grassroots organization that not only aims to enable the entirety of San Jose and the South Bay into manifesting a circle where they are able to reinvent their city for and by the community, all the while taking advantage of their platform to further spread awareness of the prejudice and blunt hatred BIPOC face; predominantly highlighting people of African descent. Forbidding the current horrors of COVID-19 from governing their approach to aid the BLM movement, San Jose Strong continues to enforce how black people have a voice that deserves, and must, be heard, as well as allocate resources for allies who simply want to join their battle, educate themselves further, and create a lasting impact on their communities.

San Jose Strong is the perfect personification of the Bay’s local heroes and more notably, the leaders of our future. Founded by twenty-one-year-old Mary Jessie Celestin earlier this yearin the former part of 2020, the organization urges the city of San Jose to acknowledge the reality of how black lives are becoming mere names that the world has had to say goodbye to, despite their loss being one that could easily be prevented. Through the work of volunteers and the help of the stance Celestin and her fellow team members have established, San Jose Strong invigorates their communities within San Jose and the South Bay to delve into a look for a better future for those who are unfairly attacked and discriminated due to the pigmentation of their skin. 

A Moldable Design

     What started as an innocent guide for residents to seek the tools to find and maintain a connection with their city’s leaders and a way to fuel their understanding of San Jose’s landscape quickly morphed into an organization that stood at the forefront of the Black Lives Matter Movement alongside many others. In an interview with Celestin, she describes her organization briefly: “the process of constructing an imaginary world and building it into reality.” With more than 7,000 followers across a series of social media, more than 150 locals engaged in the online volunteer program, and more than a dozen communities thrilled about the journey to more in-depth civic engagement, San Jose Strong holds one key vision that they hope to take international. Volunteers and team members actively strive to perfectly design a world in which every citizen from any given area has a comfortable and knowing place where they belong and can effortlessly thrive in.

The Reality of an Imagination

     Through their eight core values of Accountability, Continuous Learning, Diversity, Empathy, Empowerment, Psychological Safety, Imagination, and Transparency, the intents of San Jose Strong are made clear; how they are almost desperate to make an impact on the society that they’ve inhabited, in addition to every small-town and major city community. As of the current moment, they’ve focused on fighting for equality to embed the idea that Black Lives do Matter: to convince people to not take a vote against all minority rights, to understand the struggle and fears BIPOC have to face as they attempt to go out and do every-day things, taking the risk and joining the fight through the series of San Jose and South Bay BLM protests San Jose Strong has listed on their website, following a spreadsheet entailing other local organizations that share their similar goal.

      San Jose Strong balances such work alongside work-building through community empowerment, holding those accountable for their doings and injustices whilst encouraging those who have been weakened by the inequality that they face. Aiding the creation of the world they envision is seen through, filling it with nothing but diversity and equality and becoming the technological blueprint that is necessary for making the cultural shifts to stimulate and hearten communities in accessing their true, inner voice to reach the full power and potential it has always secretly emitted. The transparency and empathy given by San Jose Strong with no hesitation allow those in the community to trust in them and become a part of the movement, consequently signing up to be these individuals who will rise up and take a stand for all who are afraid to; becoming the Future of Tomorrow.