I just couldn't afford to pay the bill.īut I couldn't sit on Twitter and go at people all day. One day I got up and realized my phone service was turned off. You and I know the money for the campaign I can't use, but how far that traveled was both disappointing and fascinating to watch. I remember reading articles and Facebook comments that was an example that I stole money from the movement. TV: Did writing this book help you exhale, or provide a creative release?ĭM: When I ran for mayor, we raised about $300,000 in 60 days, which was more than every race in the country at the time. I'd definitely serve in an administration, be on a school board, be a chief of something again. When I ran for mayor for the second time, I got so many angry messages like, "you're wasting your influence," "you guys just want a photo-op." I supported Hillary in an op-ed in The Washington Post and you would've thought that I sold my blood to the devil the way people. There's people in the gay community who don't think I talk about my identity enough, given the platforms I'm able to be on.ĭM: All of our energy can't be in fighting people in power, we have to be those people. I hope people would be able to see me as a three-dimensional person. If one were to pick up this book, what would you want them to take away and learn about you?ĭM: I think to some people I'm not a person, you know? And this is the first time I've ever written about personal things. TV: You have your fair share of detractors. When we fight these structures, when we stand in the middle of the street, when we protest, when we run for office, it's because we know that a better world is possible and that it'll only come forward if we fight for it. We engage not because we're hopeless, but because we understand that hope is not magic, hope is work. How would you summarize the case for hope?ĭM: Hope is the belief that our tomorrow can be better than our today. TV: The reality of these systems can sometimes leave people feeling helpless. I hope people will read that chapter and think about systems a little differently. Also in the third chapter, about the police, we Campaign Zero, a police reform organization started by DeRay and other activists] have done so much research but we've never written about it all in one place before. I talk about being gay, but I don't really talk about love. I had to process a lot to even write that chapter. So, I think there will be a lot of stories that, unless you've talked to me before, you've never heard. There's not an exposition on why I think this or that. He is a board member of Rock The Vote, was named one of the World’s Greatest Leaders by Fortune Magazine in 2015, one of the 30 Most Influential People On The Internet by Time Magazine in 2016.TV: What would you want one of your followers to learn from this book that they don't already know about you?ĭM: For as much as I share on Twitter, it's Twitter, right? It's not longform. He has also been featured on the cover of The Advocate, Adweek, and Attitude Magazine and has been highlighted in a range of publications including Vogue, Vanity Fair, Interview Magazine, VICE, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Baltimore Sun. He is also the host of the award-winning weekly podcast Pod Save The People - which creates space for conversation about the most important issues of the week related to justice, equity and identity.ĭeRay frequently appears on national media outlets including The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, NPR, MSNBC, CNN, among many others. Spurred by the death of Mike Brown and the subsequent protests in Ferguson, Missouri, and beyond, DeRay has become a key player in the work to confront the systems and structures that have led to mass incarceration and police killings of black and other minority populations.
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