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Opinion: Harris’s Diversity Coalition Revives the Power of True-Blue American Identity Politics
In corners of America dominated by MAGA disinformation, the concept of identity politics is vilified. It goes hand in hand with the anti-DEI wave that’s trying to snuff out the modern civil rights movement. Here comes the good news. So, you thought the dismantling of DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) programs in higher ed and corporate America meant diversity as a value in America is dead. Think again. Kamala (as Harris says, “rhymes with mama-la”) just woke America back up.
By Emil Guillermo
In corners of America dominated by MAGA disinformation, the concept of identity politics is vilified.
It goes hand in hand with the anti-DEI wave that’s trying to snuff out the modern civil rights movement.
Here comes the good news.
So, you thought the dismantling of DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) programs in higher ed and corporate America meant diversity as a value in America is dead.
Think again.
Kamala (as Harris says, “rhymes with mama-la”) just woke America back up.
The Zoom call as a mass fundraising tool is alive and well.
The frenzy began after the two big kickoff Zoom conference calls last week — Black women (90,000 attendees/$1.5 million raised, followed by Black men (232,000 attendees/$1.3 million raised).
This week, Asian American Filipinos got theirs on a teleconference that featured Filipino Americans like Alameda’s Rob Bonta, the California Attorney General.
It came one day after “White Dudes for Kamala” on Monday drew 200,000 participants, including actor Jeff Bridges who declared “I’m White, I’m a dude, and I’m for Harris.”
The “White Dudes” raised more than $4 million, a slightly larger amount than the call last week with more than 200,000 White women that raised $3.5 million
Other recent Zoom calls included South Asian women (10,000 attendees/ $285,000 raised) and Latino Women (5,000 attendees/$110,000 raised).
The record haul after just one week of the campaign (over $200 million in all) shows grassroots America is falling hard for Kamala Harris.
The surge signals a revival of identity politics too often tamped down by Trump’s divisive MAGA beliefs.
The best put-down a GOP commentator on CNN could muster was to decry it all as the “Democrat obsession with racial segregation.”
Typical response. It’s not segregation to bring disparate people together in coalition. That’s a celebration of diversity’s strength.
NEW CALIFORNIA MEDIA
In the late ‘’90s and into the new millennium, I was part of a consortium of ethnic media organizations led by Sandy Close and the Pacific News Service that chronicled the rise of a New America. We started with California where minorities were already a majority, launching a television show called “NCM: New California Media.”
As host and executive producer, NCM was one of the first “Meet the Press”-style panel programs in any medium that included Asian, Latino, Black, Indian and LGBTQ journalists who covered us like we mattered.
It’s how I met the Oakland Post’s Tom Berkley and his daughter, Gail Berkley. The late Chauncey Bailey was a regular and my friend. Even Van Jones, long before he was with CNN, appeared on the program.
We covered politics for sure. But there was never one politician who could excite and harness the energy of all the various communities at once.
Gov. Pete Wilson? The recalled Gray Davis? Cruz Bustamante? Ah-nuld?
There was no one.
But there is now.
The future we anticipated and hoped for nearly 25 years ago has finally arrived in Kamala Harris.
Is the Trump/Vance reaction weird? No, they’re just used to snuffing out diversity in favor of preserving their dwindling majority — like trying to dam up the natural flow of America.
Harris has released our natural flow of diversity.
About the Author
Emil Guillermo is a journalist and commentator. See him on YouTube.com/@emilamok1. Contact: amok.com
