Say hello to the Radical Brownies, a troop of a dozen East Oakland girls who are learning about the merits of activism. With a tip of their brown berets to the Black Panthers, the original Oaktown social justice warriors, the Radical Brownies have ambitious plans to revolutionize their community.

Co-founders Anayvette Martinez and Marilyn Hollinquest started the group for 8-12 year-old girls late last year with the aim of having a Girl Scout-like group that would be focused on social justice. Both Martinez and Hollinquest are queer women of color who each have over a decade of experience working with LGBTQ youth and young people of color, though Martinez has no personal experience with the Girl Scouts or old-school scouting.

The Radical Brownies “all came about organically” last year, says Martinez, spurred on by her fourth-grade daughter Coatlupe’s desire to join a young girls’ troop. "As she was blooming into a young girl of color, I watched her begin to navigate her identity and growth,” Martinez said. “I saw the need for a group that would empower and encourage her to form bonds of sisterhood with other girls in her community. I began to imagine what a radical young girl’s social justice troop looked like, a group that centered and affirmed her experiences as a beautiful and brilliant brown girl against so many societal pressures to conform to mainstream ideals of girlhood."

Today, Coatlupe is working toward her second Radical Brownies badge, this one in Radical Beauty. The youngster has a keen awareness of how stereotypes around beauty negatively her—Coatlupe told me that Radical Beauty is about “loving the skin you are in and ignoring commercials that say you need certain products to be beautiful when really you are beautiful just the way you are.”

Since the troop’s debut, they’ve received a ton of positive media attention (and some nasty critics, of course, like one person who described the troop as “future Marxist agitators”). On January 22, the Young Women of Color Leadership Council wrote to the Radical Brownies in an open letter, “Many of us grew up wishing we had something like what you have created and are so happy to see you forming this sisterhood. We know that sisterhood is radical and revolutionary and can see the love and support you have for one another in ourselves as well." I sat down recently and talk with Martinez about all these issues.

http://bitchmagazine.org/post/in-oaklands-radical-brownies-girls-collect-merit-badges-for-activism