Textbooks for Change

The LA Times is reporting that the California Supreme Court just upheld Proposition 8, the ballot initiative banning same sex marriage, by a vote of 6 - 1. This is hugely disappointing

Many blogs will have excellent analyses of this ruling over the coming hours, but right now, I want to point out something of a silver lining that should give hope to all Americans that support marriage equality. As a recent report by the Center for American Progress makes clear, this will pass and marriage equality will likely become a reality all across the country within a decade.

Why? Because today's denial of the civil rights of millions of Americans, this remnant of the culture wars of the late 20th C, remains a non-starter among young Americans of the Millennial Generation. Just as young voters were the only age group to originally vote against Prop 8 (61 - 39%), nationally young voters remain highly supportive of gay marriage.

The Millennial Generation is so huge, that CAP estimates that by 2018, via a simple matter of cohort replacement (old people dying, young people aging into the electorate), a majority of Americans will be supportive of marriage equality.

The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice. While we are waiting for that bend, check out these two youth-led efforts in support of gay marriage:

• New Yorkers for Marriage Equality
• Textbooks for Change

Students are famous (infamous?) for contributing to political and social justice causes with their time and labor, but very rarely with their pocketbook. It's a simple matter of disposable income - struggling students don't have it, particularly as tuition rates rise and post-graduation job prospects look dimmer and dimmer. But what if there was a way for students to give with their pocketbook without actually adding to their debt or sacrificing beer and pizza money? A new group of student activists may have just hit on a solution to this age old problem.

Just last week, a group of student activists, in partnership with the California College Democrats launched Textbooks for Change, a website/Facebook Application that seeks to leverage the Amazon Associates Program, and thousands of student textbook purchases, into cash for California's Courage Campaign and their ongoing efforts to repeal Prop 8.

Here's how it works. The Amazon Associates Program allows any person or entity (website, corporation, non profit, etc.) to become a partner of Amazon. Partners place advertisements, search boxes, and other links to Amazon on their site and refer their readers to Amazon for specific or generic purchases (anything from a used book to a flatscreen TV). Partners are paid a certain percentage (usually around 7%) of all business referred. So what is the one thing that all students spend hundreds of dollars on each semester? Books. Textbooks for Change encourages supporters to buy their books through specified Amazon links, recouping 7% of those textbooks costs and funneling it to the Courage Campaign.

The entire campaign is publicized through a Facebook application, through which supporters are encouraged to donate their status, become a supporter, and place an Associates link (a shiny red button as featured above) on their profile pages. One click from a partner's web page (or a friend's Facebook account), and students are directed to Amazon's textbook search page. The rest is as simple as finding your coursebooks.

The student activists behind Textbooks for Change are not the first to think of this strategy. As I have blogged before, the Harvard College Democrats seem to be the first pioneers, using it locally to raise a few hundred extra dollars for their budget each semester. The exciting thing about Textbooks for Change is the way they've developed the strategy in such a way that it can now scale nationally - bringing in significant amounts of cash not just for Courage Campaign and marriage equality, but any number of issues.

While at this moment*, the organizers behind Textbooks for Change are focusing their efforts solely on repealing Prop 8, it's easy to see that what they've created is an ideal template into which almost any issue campaign could be dropped. It would just be a simple matter of swapping out some text on the web page and Facebook App. Transform the Textbooks For Change website into an aggregator of information on all of those existing campaigns, and the organizers behind this may well have hit upon an issue and ideology agnostic platform/strategy for student organizations everywhere looking to increase their political influence and impact.

*I should also note that Textbooks for Change is still a work in progress and the developers will be rolling out new features as the weeks go by. If you have comments/critiques please leave them and I will make sure that they get passed along to the T4C team.