Four years ago, amidst the mass protests over the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers, the Democratic Party – and the nation as a whole – engaged in a sometimes animated debate about institutional racism and how American history is presented.
While many mainstream Democrats avoided the aggressive calls to “defund the police”, most engaged in the discussion of how America could take steps to address what they viewed as the corrosive legacy of slavery in the nation’s businesses, classrooms and government, including by promoting DEI – diversity, equity and inclusion.
More recently, the issue of transgender rights has been an animating force among segments of the Democratic coalition – particularly in the face of Republican efforts to limit or prohibit the ability of children to receive gender care.
Neither topic has received much attention in the Democratic convention arena so far. There was an emotional tribute to the civil rights movement early on Monday that culminated in a wheelchair-bound Jesse Jackson – who marched with Martin Luther King Jr and ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in the 1980s – taking the stage. But DEI and other remedies have received short shrift.
“DEI has become a dog-whistle code” used to undermine minorities in powerful positions, said Shavon Arline-Bradley, the president of the National Council of Negro Women, which is organising voter outreach efforts in presidential battleground states.
“Our country was founded on opportunities for all men and all women, but we’re not hearing that now, because a lot of people don’t want to alienate a certain base of folk that are afraid of this.”
At this convention, alienating the fewest number of potential voters has been the name of the game.
And while abortion rights have been a daily focus at the convention, transgender issues – the other hot-button social topic currently – have been largely ignored in the programming that makes national television.
Ms Arline-Bradley warns that by not talking about questions of equity and inclusion, the problems will linger.
“We should talk about them, because this party is the most inclusive and diverse party,” she said. “Show it, activate it and live by those values.”
Emily Foster is a globe-trotting journalist based in the UK. Her articles offer readers a global perspective on international events, exploring complex geopolitical issues and providing a nuanced view of the world’s most pressing challenges.
