Leveraging Privilege: Organizing Young People with Wealth to Support Social Justice

Abstract

Scholars and practitioners suggest that some people with power and privilege organize within their own communities to create change and help shape a just society. However, extant literature offers no model of how those with privilege organize to support these goals while remaining accountable to cross-class movements and avoiding replication of existing, unjust power structures. This mixed-methods case study examines how an organization of young adults who have (or will inherit) wealth alters a transformative model to effectively organize people with wealth. The article extends the literature on community organizing by proposing a model for organizing people with wealth and privileged identities to responsibly leverage their resources and access to elite institutions. Working with these young adults, a cross-class team of organizers uses its collective knowledge and experience to develop critical consciousness, build skills, and create action plans that responsibly support social justice.