By Andrea Shorter–
“ … there was no one to welcome me to the land of freedom. I was a stranger in a strange land; and my home, after all, was down in Maryland, because my father, my mother, my brothers, and sisters, and friends were there. But I was free, and they should be free.”
Harriet Tubman to Sarah Bradford in Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman (1869)
The life of runaway slave and abolitionist Harriet Tubman stands firm as a towering monument to the idea and promise of freedom, glorious freedom. Tubman’s legend as the conductor of the underground railroad that she organized and led to deliver loved ones in Maryland from slavery through daunting, treacherous passages towards freedom into northern harbor is as towering as the eternal light of President Abraham Lincoln—granite strong, forever marble enshrined in memoriam on the Washington Mall, in endless scholarly examination, grade school books, award-winning cinematic portraits, and, of course, on the copper penny.
While the quest of one of my personal living heroines, former U.S. Treasurer (43rd, under President Obama) Rosie Rios, to have the image of Tubman replace Andrew Jackson (7th president, racist conductor of the “trail of tears” and tyranny to basically exterminate Indian tribes, and favorite of POTUS 45) enshrined upon the $20 bill has been “delayed” until 2028 by current Treasury Secretary Mnuchin, Tubman is now being visited in cinematic scope in the recently released film Harriet.
It was released to good reviews—ask most anyone over 70, “it was good, it’s about time her story was told”—to mostly millennial-aged mixed reviews—“hmm, just heard of her but is this another black slavery bad, white savior good trope, not-so-woke sanitized story of oppression to attract and assuage fragile white viewers? And, why is a black Brit playing African American hero Harriet? What, they couldn’t get Regina King?” —to oh please, don’t bother. It is rare that the hash-tagging woke crowd has a meeting of the minds with the National Review, but in my estimate, if the “National Review” lands in the latter category of naysaying about any film depicting women of color, then you should definitely go see it. Like tonight or this weekend, with friends.
Hardly compensatory during the long wait for the conductor of the underground railroad to over the leader of the trail of tears on the $20 bill, Harriet is out there. And, people are talking about her, albeit not nearly as much as they are about Meryl Streep in Netflix’s Laundromat (about the modern-day trail of tears and destruction to mere mortals caused by the shadiness of Cayman Island-like shell companies and the like; no spoilers here, just see it!), but Tubman’s quest for her own freedom, that of others, and the ideas and responsibility of what it means to be free in the aspirations and promise of democratic society is out there.
Which brings me to another personal modern-day heroine of mine: Aimee Allison. Allison heads up “She the People,” an organization that ‘’brings together a national network of women of color—voters, movement builders, elected leaders—to transform our democracy. We unite under shared values—to love our own and others, to make justice the law of the land, to create a country where everyone belongs, and to make this American democracy live up to its greatest promise. As women of color—Black, Latina, Asian American and Pacific Islander, Muslim, Indigenous—we have been at the heart of the justice movements that have shaped this country. And now we are ready to govern.”
Right on. Similar to the organizational uplift of the visibility, relevancy, and power of the LGBT vote that the Human Rights Campaign and the Victory Fund have worked to empower LGBT Americans in electoral politics, She the People seeks to uplift and provide platform for women of color, who make up 20% of the U.S. population and more than a quarter of ALL Democrats. Hear that? Take that in.
With perhaps an overcommitment of organizational resources and handwringing democratic strategists, operatives, and candidates spent wooing the evermore elusive white, working male Democratic voter lured elsewhere, She the People is basically working to save the Democratic Party, the White House, and the nation.
As it aptly notes, women of color are one in four voters in key swing states. According to She the People and other political analysts, women of color were central to the recent midterm victories: turnout among women of color increased 37% compared with the 2014 midterms. Votes from Asian American and Pacific Islander women increased to 48%, Black women to 28%, and Latinas at 51%. They declare that when turnout among women of color has been above the national average, Democrats have won. When their turnout is below, Democrats have lost.
So, like Harriet Tubman, Democrat women of color voters today are providing that passageway to freedom. Black women, in particular, have always been there, as the backbone, the cornerstone, the whatever stone of the modern-day Democratic Party. And, often taken for granted. Welcome strangers to a strange land espousing freedom. Free but not free until all are free.
Thanks to Harriet and now She the People for being that North Star guiding our passage forward and onward. If today’s Democratic Party and the soul of the nation are to be saved, we must prevail beyond a shortsighted restoration of long-gone states of normalcy—where straight white males predominantly preside for better or worse over endangered institutional norms and protocols that have traditionally better served their status quo.
The greater inclusion and respect for what Democratic women of color voters bring to the mix is what can save an estranged nation from itself. Do the math: women of color votes matter. In 2020, they will certainly be worth a hecka boatload more than gold or any worn-out stacks of Andrew Jackson’s $20 bills.
Andrea Shorter is a Commissioner and the former President of the historic San Francisco Commission on the Status of Women. She is a longtime advocate for criminal and juvenile justice reform, voter rights and marriage equality. A Co-Founder of the Bayard Rustin LGBT Coalition, she was a 2009 David Bohnett LGBT Leadership Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
Published on November 14, 2019
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