“Radical Raskolnikov” points to “next wave” of youth activism

What if Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, the politically-minded student at the heart of “Crime and Punishment,” had a Tumblr page?

It might look something like “Radical Raskolnikov,” the blog that a team of Sequoia students created to showcase their growing interest in youth and activism.

The project was sparked by a class exercise in which a student group was given a link to the CIA Factbook and asked to do a 10-minute “deep dive.”

After some searching, the group was struck by the difference in median age between emerging societies such as Egypt (25.1), where student protests have become an engine of change, versus Russia, where the media age is 38.9 and student demonstrations are less well-known.

After some discussion, student Julia Griffin and her fellow students decided to create “a project on a social media platform about activism.”

“We want(ed) to focus primarily on Russia and other Slavic countries, but might possibly incorporate other topics we’ve learned about this year as well, like Egyptian and North American activism,” wrote Griffin.

Students have been posting a wide range of stories and photos to their blog, including a speech by Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o on black beauty, a map of environmental protests around the world, and a comment by African American historian and social activist Cornel West.

“I think that the next wave of social activism will be among young people and it’s going to take a variety of different forms,” West said, in an article students featured on their blog. “I’m old school so I have to learn from young people.”