Women of color at the She the People presidential forum say they’re frustrated with the attention given to Democratic primary front-runners, former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and other white males.
She the People co-founder Aimee Allison said Wednesday she’s also frustrated with polling numbers that indicate Biden and Sanders are in the lead in the Democratic primary, and said it’s up in the air whether Biden will attract support from women of color.
“He’s going to enter a really different world,” Allison told Politico. “It’s a world in which we’ve woken up as women of color and we’re not just going along to get along for a Democratic Party insider.”
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Leah Daughtry, a former Democratic National Committee official who assisted with the She the People event, said Wednesday evening before Biden officially launched his campaign Thursday morning that the attention he has garnered reminds her of racism and sexism that is “part of the fabric” of the U.S.’s founding.
“With all due respect to the vice president, he hasn’t even announced yet but he’s the front-runner?” Daughtry told Politico. “Racism and sexism are part of the fabric and the fiber and the founding of our country.”
“The way that the [Democratic] candidates are being treated, it just reminds you of that. We’re not past it,” Daughtry said.
LaTosha Brown, who co-founded Black Voters Matter, argued the media is “complicit” in “elevating” white male candidates.
“When you got a media that’s constantly saying Biden and Beto and Bernie and literally elevating the male candidates, I think that’s going to be reflected in the polls,” Brown told Politico.
Democrats including Sanders, Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., appeared at the She the People event Wednesday. In particular, Warren’s message resonated with the 1,500 women of color who attended, as did Harris’.
“You have to really point out Elizabeth Warren’s performance here today,” Maria Urbina, a political director for the progressive group Indivisible, told Politico. “She was specific, she didn’t just rely on her record.”
The presidential forum was held Wednesday afternoon at Texas Southern University in Houston.
