Harris’ diversity coalition shows renewed power of identity politics

Vice President Kamala Harris campaigns for President as the presumptive Democratic candidate during an event at West Allis Central High School on Tuesday, July 23, 2024, in West Allis, Wis. (AP Photo/Kayla Wolf)

America divided by MAGA has vilified the idea of identity politics.

Having pride being a Filipino American and voting shouldn’t be considered anti-American.

But it goes hand in hand with the anti-DEI wave that’s trying to snuff out the modern civil rights movement.

So here comes the good news.

If you thought the dismantling of DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) programs in higher ed and corporate America meant diversity as a value in America was dead, think again.

Kamala (as Harris says, “rhymes with mama-la”) just woke America back up using skills we all learned from the pandemic.

The Zoom call as a mass fundraising appeal is definitely alive and well.

Asian American Filipinos get their call today (Tuesday, July 30, 5:30pm PT/8:30 pm ET by registering here: https://bit.ly/FAFHLaunch.)

A Latino friend sent me the link and I’m checking it out only as a reporter, as the call will have Filipino American politicians like California Attorney General Rob Bonta speaking.   If you’re curious, I doubt you have to be Filipino to attend. Nor do you have to contribute. But you can see for yourself if the buzz is for real.

The call comes a day after the so-called “white dudes for Kamala” had their call on Monday and drew 200,000 participants. It included 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 greater 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 frenzy began after the two big kickoffs last week—sorority-based Black women (90,000 attendees/$1.5 million raised, followed by Black men (232,000 attendees/$1.3 million raised).

It’s all part of a record haul after just one week (over $200 million in all) that shows Grassroots America is falling hard for Kamala Harris.

Not so much for Trump/Vance. Their big news is the campaign is  spending a lot less now on criminal defense lawyers.

Harris’ surge also signals a revival of identity politics too often tamped down by Trump’s divisive MAGA beliefs. We’re all being liberated by the force that is Harris.

In response, 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.

The GOP can’t handle diversity

But the GOP remains burdened by the same negative attitude used to diss ethnic studies in the past as “basket weaving” or in our present day as “critical race theory.”

It’s a mindset that exposes how the MAGA GOP is incapable of thinking about an America that is all inclusive – women, people of color and LGBTQIA.

Clearly, Trump didn’t think he’d need much more than his MAGA white demographic. He ignored the rest of us, figuring that many voters were turned off by an aging Biden. Trump thought he was home free. Or maybe it was his lucky ear-bandage that told him to pick as his veep someone who could simply be an ideological MAGA stand-in.

Unfortunately, J.D. Vance will be known for the duration of the campaign as the “childless cat lady” hater. With that one comment from a recycled Fox News show, Vance has alienated all women voters – roughly half the American population – not to mention the growing number of people under 40 who choose to be childless.

And Trump hasn’t done much better with his ad hominem attacks on the accomplished Harris, calling her “dumb as a rock.”

With less than 100 days to go in the campaign, Trump/Vance and the GOP look like old-fashioned racists, sexists and misogynists who want to take away all the rights and freedoms we’ve fought for since the 19th century. Add to that, Trump, now cast as the oldest candidate ever to run for president, looks older with each soundbite. And Vance is a heartbeat away?

Meanwhile, since Biden stepped aside, Kamala Harris has surprised everyone. She’s the unifier, sparking a new, youthful coalition that is the antidote to the Trump era and the cloud that has hung over our democracy since Jan. 6, 2021.

With all the Zoom call fundraising, Harris has unleashed the value of diversity and a modern democracy that reflects it.

Unlike the backward march of Trump and Vance to relive the racist past we’ve overcome, Harris brings an excitement and enthusiasm for a New America, which I’ve predicted for a long time.

New California Media

In the late ‘90s and entering 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 beginning of that New America. We started in California where minorities were already a majority, with a television show called  “NCM: New California Media.”

I was the host and executive producer of one of the first “Meet the Press”-style panel programs on television that included top journalists in the ethnic media. Asian, Latino, Black, Indian, LGBTQ – we all covered diversity.

It’s where I met journalists like the Oakland Post’s Tom Berkley and his daughter, Gail Berkley. We also had reporters and commentators like the late Chauncey Bailey. Even Van Jones, long before he was with CNN, appeared on the program. And with a statewide focus, our roundtable featured editors from Los Angeles’ La Opinion.

During my time helming the show, 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 quite like Kamala Harris. Not back then.

But there is now.

The future we anticipated and hoped for nearly 25 years ago has finally arrived. We can all feel the difference.

In two weeks, there’s a sense of unity like there hasn’t been in years.

And Trump/Vance – weird?

They just don’t recognize diversity when it hits them in the face.

They’re too used to snuffing it out wherever they see it in favor of the preservation of a dwindling white majority. It’s been like trying to dam up the natural flow of America.

But now Kamala Harris has released that flow of diversity. As the Zoom calls have shown, it is a force.

Emil Guillermo is a journalist and commentator. He writes a column for Inquirer.net’s US Channel. See his secret talk show on YouTube@emilamok1  Contact: www.amok.com