More Than A Magazine, A Movement
In the past two decades, Kamala Harris has gone from being the first Black and South Asian woman to serve as San Francisco district attorney, to the first Black and South Asian woman to serve as vice president of the United States. Now, she’s earned enough delegate support to become a presidential nominee—another first for a woman of color. The significance of this moment cannot be overstated.
I know what it is like to live at a time when our leaders haven’t looked like me.
The threats women candidates face on the campaign trail are intentional, especially towards women of color and those serving at the state and local level who rarely receive media attention.
Attacks on women candidates and elected officials are attacks on democracy. Full stop.
Vice President Harris and Israeli President Isaac Herzog just announced $70 million in funding—half from the U.S. and half from Israel—for climate-smart agriculture to capture, store, use and protect water resources in the Middle East and Africa. And it’s no accident a project like this was put forward by the first female vice president in United States history who is a woman of color.
Black women across the country are making history winning elected office and leading political organizations, in greater numbers and at higher levels than ever before. Yet, we are still being asked to do more with less because of a massive gap in funding.
Even with the significant headwinds Black women face, people are choosing us to lead during one of the most tumultuous periods in recent history. That’s not an accident. Americans know we have the solutions these times require.
The fight for progress happens at every level of government. Investing in women candidates—from the ground up and down the ballot—is how we will win.
I was a young woman who knew she loved politics but had no idea how to translate that into a career, because I did not have enough women of color around me in political roles to teach me. I became a political staffer who had no idea how to navigate systems and institutions that were built by people that did not look like me. I dealt with micro-aggressions and inappropriate comments when I moved on to roles as a mid-level manager. Now, I’m a senior staffer who sits at the tables that I had hoped and dreamed to be in—and when I look around, I see no one else that looks like me. That’s why I created the Brown Girls Guide to Politics.
