Former Mayoral Candidate Nikkita Oliver Visits To Advocate For Diversity

Green River College hosted Nikkita Oliver, an attorney, writer, and organizer for Seattle’s “No Youth” Jail and the Black Lives Matter movement. 

Her visit was on Feb 28 in the Lindbloom Student Union and was organized by Student Life.

Oliver’s speech began with an introduction about herself, her religion, her ethnicity, where she came from. She does that to acknowledge her identity within the system she’s living in.

“Intersectionality help us think about how is interaction and privileged is placed around us in the world, “ Oliver said.

Oliver believes that there is an impact of identity on her job.

“There are places where I feel privileged and others where I feel oppressed, which impacts the work I do,” Oliver said.

According to Oliver, anything she does involves activism or civic engagement.

She advocates for people who are most marginalized in a system that oppress people based on race, class, gender, religion. “It’s not like I sat down and charted out my employment goals, I do the work that I do. And then when there’s a need, if I’m the one who’s equipped to respond to it, I do.” 

Oliver was also a candidate for Seattle Mayor. Her mayoral campaign, she said, was inspired by a child who told her that he didn’t see people like him running for mayor.

In addition, the young attorney has participated in the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. “I think what BLM has done that is really powerful is it has built itself intersectionally. It has allowed incarcerated people, trans women of color, poor black women, queer black women, and other folks within the black community who have been pushed farthest out to the margins, to be center, not only in the conversation but in leadership within the movement,” she said. 

Oliver was impacted by the acquittance of George Zimmerman, who shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. She said that she felt somewhat alone in New York, when she was there, so she went out into the street and marched.

It was there, in 2013, while grappling with the reality of Martin’s murder and his public trial, that she wrote her new poem “Firearms” which comes from the perspective of the weapon. 
The poem was created in a video format and shared on Vimeo for all to see.