Emma Khodaverdian is Leading the Next Generation
November 25, 2021
This is part of our #ArmenianAmericanSpotlight series, highlighting the work of community heroes, organizers, advocates, and artists in the U.S. Armenian community. Armenian America sat down with youth organizer Emma Khodaverdian to speak on how she is building racial, gender and climate justice.
Sophia Armen, Armenian America: What is your name and where were you born?
Emma Khodaverdian: My name is Emma Khodaverdian and I was born in Los Angeles, California.
SA: What is your Armenian identity and how do you think it has shaped your life?
Emma Khodaverdian, Armenian-American organizer
EK: My Armenian identity/diasporan identity is Persian-Armenian and that has definitely informed my cultural identity. My upbringing was the perfect concoction of Armenian and Persian cuisine, music, history, heritage. Almost all of the food I ate growing up, from ashreshteh to kashkeh bademjoon (my grandma's speciality) derived from the heavy influence that Persian culture had on my ethnic identity. While this did allow me to firmly root myself in my SWANA heritage and understand my culture in a profound way, it lent itself to isolating me from the Armenian community. There is a great deal of colorism amongst Armenians and the sentiment of "true" and "pure" Armenians having white/fair skin, light colored hair, and blue eyes impacted me largely, especially growing up. I have much darker features than the average Armenian and always stood out, even at family functions. Racism at large absolutely thwarted my chance at a peaceful, naive, and carefree childhood; I remember I would try to scrub off the melanin in my skin in an attempt to look whiter, at as young as five years old. Moments like these were not few and far between, and instead of being able to find a safe haven in the Armenian community, I was only met with further discrimination and isolation. This experience is especially true of mixed race Armenians. This coupled with the polarization of diasporan identities within the Armenian community not only divides us as an already miniscule ethnic minority, but also stigmatizes the Armenian diaspora and puts us as descendants of genocide to blame.
SA: What are some of the central issues you feel the Armenian-American community faces? How do you think we can achieve justice?
EK: As an Armenian, issues that feel especially personal to me are genocide and diaspora of course, but currently, imperalism, colonization, and cultural erasure are deeply prevalent issues impacting our community. Ultimately, we cannot completely rely on our current political system to remedy these issues. Our elected officials operate under the guise of the US imperial war machine, and this very country is built on the basis of colonization, genocide, and ethnic erasure. The United Nations is complicit in the war crimes and destruction committed by Turkey to this day. We must look to our own community, building ties with one another, taking part in mutual aid, in order to achieve justice. We will achieve our own liberation.
SA: Exactly, and I think a lot of young people are leading our community on that analysis and then building it. Speaking of, what are projects you are currently working on that you are excited about?
EK: As of right now, I am working closely with Generation Ratify, the youth-led movement to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment and achieve intersectional gender equality and queer liberation, as their national organizing director. We are currently working on an internal overhaul so that we can restructure our movement to put community and local organizers at the forefront, through fundraising/stipending and partnership building.
Emma leading a rally with Sunrise Movement
SA: What subjects do you take on in your work and why? How do you see these issues of social and global justice?
EK: Some subjects I take on in my work are gender inequity, the climate crisis, and the housing crisis, with a concentration in race and how that exists within all of these issues. These are all deeply personal to me and have directly impacted my own community. Gender equality movements and feminism at large have historically and presently been dominated by and catered for white women, while excluding anyone on the intersections of this issue. What drew me to gender equality and justice work was to rewrite the narrative and take up space in these movements that do not represent me and others like me. Similarly, my work in climate justice is heavily focused on the racial disparities that exist within the climate crisis. My community has had the threat of displacement on multiple occasions due to the climate-induced wildfires that routinely ravage our homes. The housing crisis is an issue that I have seen first hand and family member's of mine have experienced, especially in Los Angeles. Our public officials have time and time again abandoned the very people that they took an oath of office to serve and deliberately perpetuate the housing crisis. We have the ability to support every resident of Los Angeles, and through mutual aid efforts and community organizing, I have been able to witness first hand this truth.
SA: What are your wishes for the future of the Armenian-American community?
EK: The Armenian-American community needs to recognize that we have a common enemy: white supremacy, the cis-hetero patriarchy, imperialism, and colonization, and that it impacts us all. Too often do I see misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, and racism perpetuated within our community, and it benefits absolutely no one and only works to tear us apart. When I see the divisions within our people, I can only think that they are winning, white supremacy is winning, these systems that work to put us on the margins are winning. We need to come together as one community fighting for our collective liberation.
SA: Do you have advice for the next generation of Armenian-American organizers or visionaries?
EK: Take up space and use your voice unabashedly. Seriously. Do not allow anyone to silence you or make you feel a burden or a nuisance. The Armenian perspective and experience is consistently absent in various activism spaces and it is up to us to teach others about our struggles, experiences, traumas and make it so that these spaces work for us, that we are fighting as one.