Change doesn’t happen in a day, but it can start with one.
On April 5, over three million people across the United States participated in Hands-Off demonstrations. In more than 1,400 locations, people came together to demand justice and accountability from the current administration. “Hands Off!” was the mantra, and also the demand–for the administration to take its hands off of so many of the rights being ripped away from marginalized communities. It was a unifying day of action at levels not seen in this country since the nationwide protests in 2020 following the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and many others. In my city alone, Breonna Taylor’s Louisville, thousands came out for the Hands-Off protests in spite of recent record flooding.
It was a big deal. But had you turned on the news or opened your preferred social media app, you probably would not have known any of this. Major networks said little. All the major social media platforms quietly buried content. Yet, the people were there. People showed up. And perhaps more importantly—they found and saw each other.
In politically trying times, when institutions fail us and narratives are manipulated, organizing becomes more than a tactic—it becomes truth-telling. It becomes survival. It becomes a declaration: we are not alone.
Finding Each Other is the First Step Toward Freedom
So much of the work begins with feeling like something is wrong, that something has to change—but not knowing if anyone else feels it too. That’s the emotional weight many carry silently. But the moment we step into a protest, join a Zoom planning call, or even repost a flyer for action, we start to see something powerful: we are not isolated in our pain or in our hope.
Organizing connects those who “feel a type of way” and gives that feeling a name, a place, and a purpose. It says: You’re not crazy for caring, you’re not alone in your outrage, and you’re not powerless. That’s where movements begin—not in the halls of power, but in the hearts of people who find each other and decide to act together.
To the Naysayers: Organizing Is Still the Most Powerful Tool We Have
There will always be critics who say organizing doesn’t work. They say protests are performative. They claim nothing changes. But those critiques often come from the comfort of cynicism—not from the frontline of struggle.
The truth is: organizing is how every major advancement in civil and human rights has ever happened. The eight-hour workday, voting rights, school desegregation, marriage equality—all made possible because people organized. Because they refused to accept that the world is a static existence, opting for aspiration over apathy.
To organize is to challenge the lie that nothing can be done. And that challenge is deeply threatening to those in power—because organizing shifts power.
Digital Organizing Under Attack
One pervasive challenge today is how can people best organize now. It was never easy, and a lot of the mass organizing was done before social media. But since the growth of social media and online organizing, there was a time where it took off. The digital space was once a powerful tool for organizing. Hashtags mobilized millions. Livestreams exposed injustices in real time. We saw George Floyd’s murder happen in 4K. And on top of what we were exposed to, social media gave everyday people a platform to tell their truths.
But today, we are witnessing a troubling shift. Posts are suppressed. Accounts are shadow-banned or permanently removed. Livestreams of last weekend’s demonstrations were quietly taken down or hidden from timelines. Content critical of state violence or advocating for peace is often flagged as “sensitive” or “misleading.”
Platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and “Twitter” are increasingly curating what we see—not based on truth or urgency, but on what’s safe for advertisers and political interests of the privileged. This is algorithmic censorship, and it’s no accident. It is a form of control that strikes at the heart of people-powered movements. Think back to last year and the abrupt start of the suppression of anything anti-genocide. My personal Twitter account once had an average engagement on a tweet in the thousands; now, fifteen is the average.
Digital suppression isolates us, makes us feel like we’re shouting into the void. But the truth is—we’re not alone. We never were. The system just doesn’t want us to see each other because they know there is power in numbers.
When the Media Ignores Us, We Still Rise
Mainstream media’s lack of coverage of the Hands-Off protests on April 5 didn’t mean the movement failed—it meant the media failed. Silence does not equal irrelevance. It is often a strategic omission.
When the people flood the streets and the news says nothing, we must remember: we are the storytellers now. We are the media. Our cameras, our testimonies, our group chats and feeds—they’re how the truth travels. We can recreate the mobilizations of old through word of mouth and our networks engaging with one another. The March on Washington in 1963 was planned without social media but through various networks talking with each other beginning in 1961. They didn’t wait for the news to amplify what was going on.
We too cannot wait for coverage. We are the coverage. We bear witness for each other, and that alone is revolutionary.
Organizing Is Proof That We Exist—and That We Matter
In politically trying times, organizing is how we refuse erasure. It is how we declare: we are still here, still fighting, still believing in each other. I know it may feel like we are on islands these days, when the media (both traditional and social media) amplifies one side while hiding the voices seeking justice and accountability.
The demonstrations may not have led in legacy news, but they led something deeper: a collective reminder that we can and must keep showing up. That we are capable of building power even in silence. That together we can push back against suppression—both digital and systemic—and create the kind of world we all deserve to live in.
This is where we make change.Ongoing mass protests are being planned by a growing coalition of organizations. Most recently, more than 800 protests, mutual aid events, and teach-ins drew communities together on Saturday, April 19, Even when the news ignores these events, we are not alone. Through coalition building and continued organizing, we are powerful together and that truth will carry us forward.