Si Se Puede

Added: 2026-05-06

[00:00:00]The bill to replace diversity, equity, and inclusion offices in Utah's public schools is flying through the Utah legislature. It passed the house earlier today and is expected to be heard in the Senate next week. Now, what this bill does is it prohibits any programs, office, or training promoting differential treatment based on race, color, sex, orientation, or any other identity characteristic. And it doesn't just apply to higher ed, it also applies to public schools, the State Board of Education, and government employers like cities or the county health department.

[00:00:36]Diversity is a beautiful thing. It is something that makes us better, that when we come together as a team, and when different people from different backgrounds make up that team, that that team is stronger, that that team has different points of views and perhaps different experiences that they can lean on. [music] My name is Rico Ocampo, and I'm the director [music] of the Camp Anytown program in Las Vegas, Nevada.

[00:01:10]>> [music] >> Since 1983, [singing] the program has operated in Southern [music] Nevada, and since then it has transformed into interracial, interfaith camp [music] that centers diversity, that centers anti-bias in its workshops and its programming.

[00:01:35]You know, at Camp Anytown, [music] we truly believe that when we bring different people from different backgrounds, we begin the act of breaking down [music] barriers. For of the program, it helped me also understand that everyone, [music] regardless of who they are and who they love and what God they pray to, [music] that everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. And that's the premise of Camp Anytown. When we center DEI in young people, and we treat them as as the leaders of today and not tomorrow, special things happen.

[00:02:11]What was once considered and celebrated as diversity is now being despised and and being labeled >> [music] >> as a negative thing.

[00:02:27]We all deserve an America where everyone, regardless of their immigration status, their gender, their sexual orientation, their faith, they deserve to be treated with with with justice.

[00:02:41]>> [music] >> There is a a phrase that was coined by Dolores Huerta that goes sí se puede, which translates to yes, we can.

[00:02:53]We can turn this around. We can make a difference. And we can criticize this country because if we criticize this country, it means that we love it so much that we want better for this country.

[00:03:10]There's an opportunity [music] here for young people to reimagine what they want their country to look like, to reimagine how they want their country to treat people. So, that's why I believe that young people are the catalyst for needed change that this country desperately needs and deserves.

[00:03:36]>> [music] >> And for any ally who is watching this and they might say to themselves, perhaps I don't identify with a minority group, we also want you to make our struggle part of your struggle, to make our fight part of your fight, to stand shoulder to shoulder, to ask, what is it that you need? How can I help? How can I be of service to you and your liberation? [music] There's a a belief >> [music] >> that young people need to have in themselves that regardless of the resources [music] that they may not have, change is still possible. And when you have this audacious belief that one person [music] can convince another to create change, then those two people can convince [music] 10, and those 10 can convince a hundred, and those 100 can convince a thousand. And that's how we bring about change through organizing, [music] ensuring that people understand the power that they have, and that one of the things that this country cannot take away [music] from you is your voice and the power that you hold.

[00:04:53]When we take on the mantra of yes, we can, we need to be able to say it even when our voice trembles, even when it feels like no, we can't.

[00:05:05]The moment that we say no, we can't, we will give up our power. The moment that we say no, we can't, we will lose.

[00:05:13]And we don't have the ability to lose right now.

[00:05:18]>> [music] >> Young people are the future. They are today. They are tomorrow.

[00:05:27]Sí SE PUEDE.

[00:05:28]>> [cheering] >> Sí SE PUEDE.

[00:05:32]Sí SE PUEDE.

[00:05:35]Sí SE PUEDE.

[00:05:37]Sí SE PUEDE.

[00:05:40]Sí SE PUEDE.

[00:05:43]Sí SE PUEDE.

[00:05:45]Sí SE PUEDE.

[00:05:46]>> [cheering] >> Sí SE PUEDE.

[00:05:50]Sí SE PUEDE.

[00:05:53]>> [applause]