2024-09-26 17:15:05
image caption, Kamala Harris joined Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA), who identifies with pink and green, in 1986, while she was a student at Howard University.
- author, Leire Ventas
- Author title, BBC News Mundo reporter in Los Angeles
- Twitter,
4 minutes
“Sisters, this is an important issue,” Kamala Harris warned at that July 10 meeting in Dallas, Texas.
“For 116 years we have been on the front lines of ensuring the promise that is America. Let me continue that work this year.”
Dressed in pink and green, more than 20,000 women belong to them African-American sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA).
Soon after, on the day that President Joe Biden announced his decision not to seek re-election and promoted Harris in his place, AKA leaders and the rest of Historically black student organizations, known as the Divine 9 and grouped under an umbrella organization called the National Panhellenic Council.they announced that they were joining the army.
“We will activate thousands of divisions and members of our respective associations to ensure high voter participation in the areas we serve,” they announced on July 22 on the X social network, accompanied by the hashtag #D9StrongerTogether.
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As non-partisan groups, they did not mention the Democratic presidential candidate in their statement.
They go, however, little doubt about whom they intend to favor with an effort that they call themselves “unexpected.”
one of you
There are sororities and fraternities social organization for university studentswhose origin goes back to the end of the 18th century and which today continues to be an important part of campus life, especially in the USA.
Named with Greek letters, they tend to have permanent members.
And at the beginning of the last century, when because of the separation African-American students had no access to them, and they created exclusive black organizations. They are what we know today as Discipline 9.
Over the years the latter played a appropriate role in the civil rights movementdiscrimination and help to change the American legal system, access to health and education, and economic reform at the local level.
Black leaders like Martin Luther King (Alpha Phi Alpha); John Lewis (Phi Beta Sigma), who led the 1963 march in Selma, Alabama, that led to Bloody Day; or Dorothy Height (Delta Sigma Theta), who was awarded the US Congressional Gold Medal in 2004 for her fight against racial discrimination.
Today “they are organizations that are not neutral, but, if we are honest, the work they do is mainly to get the attention of voters and make them support Harris,” Mindy Romero, director of the Center for Democracy, told BBC Mundo. .
Some of them who belong to brotherhoods and fraternities have also identified themselves with that consciousness.
“That’s all they need to say. The average member will understand the taskswhich is of Kamala Harris’s choice,” he assured Axios Gregory Parks, professor of law, affiliate of Alpha Phi Alpha and co-author of Health With a Purpose: Black Sororities and Fraternities and the Fight for Equality (“Commitment with a Cause: Black Sororities and Fraternities and the Fight for Equality”).
“The mission is clear to us,” he reiterated Politics Democrat Sydney Kamlager-Dove, who holds a California seat in the House of Representatives and belongs to Zeta Phi Beta.
“We have at least 100 days and we must promote this sister“.
image caption, It is estimated that the organizations that make up the Divine 9 have 2.5 million members.
The thing is, Harris is, indeed, one of their own.
He joined Alpha Kappa Alpha and 1986while studying Political Science and Economics at Howard University, in Washington DC.
And the bond does not end with his party, but continues to have a Great weight in your public profile.
Now, the Vice President makes frequent references to his sister on social networks, in July he was the keynote speaker at the conferences of AKA and Sigma Gamma Rho in Dallas and Houston (Texas), and spoke to members of Zeta Phi Beta in Indianapolis (Indiana). ).
He did them again Cover the outline in your candidate’s acceptance speechthat mentions Thurgood Marshall (Alpha Phi Alpha), the first African-American Supreme Court justice, and Constance Baker Motley, the first black woman to be a federal judge and AKA member like her.
Among the delighted audience at the United Center in Chicago on August 22, the last day of the Democratic National Convention, were the nine leaders of the Divine 9.
Within a week, her sorority created a political action committee and Delta Sigma Theta aired a TV ad encouraging people to vote.
Along the same lines, Alpha Phi Alpha launched a $100,000 grant program for local chapters election promotion in Georgia, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
Along with Arizona and Nevada, they are seven hinge or pendulum states (swing states), who are expected to decide who wins the November 5 elections.
The funds that the Divine 9 allocates to these efforts are insignificant in comparison to the millions of dollars with which other groups fund election campaigns.
But it is possible that, with 2.5 million added members, is unrivaled in terms of the ability to go door to door to ask for the Vote.
Voting mobilizes power
The presidential election is very controversial.
Today, national polls show, on average, a slight advantage for Harris over his rival, Republican Donald Trump.
“In a situation of extraordinary closeness, in which all attention is focused on Undecided voters in war states, “It is more important than ever to get the favor of parties that can mobilize for votes,” Romero, director of the CID, told BBC Mundo.
“Harris will need all the support he can get, and so will Trump,” he stressed.
“And it looks like the Divine 9 is very prepared to work hard on the ground and explain to people how important this election is and who Harris is, in addition to having the ability to draw the press and make fire tracking around you“.
The polls also gave him an advantage among African-American voters, who could be most influenced by the actions of blacks and relatives.
A recent study conducted by Howard University Among voters of that ethnic origin in the seven pendulum states concluded that 82% would bet on Harriswhile 12% would support Trump.
According to others, the lead is less. This was done by Pew Research in August for the Democratic candidate in the voting decision of 77% in the country among the black community, compared to 13% for the Republican.
And one conducted by Suffolk University in the same month among black voters in Pennsylvania, the most important state, showed 70% to 9%.
image caption, Nine historically black sororities and fraternities have joined forces to push for a get-out-the-vote campaign.
No matter how flattering the percentages may seem, they are far from those 92% of the African-American vote that Biden managed to capture in the last four years, part of his winning formula according to a post-poll analysis by Pew.
Also, given Trump’s advantages among rural white voters, Harris will have to win big in Philadelphia, Atlanta, Detroit and other cities with large black populations to win the votes.
But those voters, like the rest of the so-called minorities or “voters of color,” have a gap that is, in fact, an advantage.
Gap, opportunity
The gap between African Americans, Latinos, and Asian Americans who can vote and those who do is more advantageous than their white counterparts.
For the election of 2020 represents 30% of potential voters, and only cast 22% of the total votes.. Meanwhile, those of Anglo-Saxon descent made up 67.6% of the electoral roll, and ended up casting 75.1% of the total votes.
This was concluded by research by the USC Center for Full Democracy.
Mindy Romero, director of the CID and lead author of the report said: “The large number of those who are eligible to vote but who do not do so among racially divided communities in swing states presents an incredible opportunity for electoral mobilization.
Getting them on the ballot could be “transformational,” he said. “It will have the potential to influence the results of the November election.”
image caption, Some 34.4 million Americans are eligible to vote on November 5.
For these elections there are 34.4 million African-American eligible voters. In Georgia, one of the key states, one-third of those eligible to vote are African-American.
In this potential voter, it’s Harris’ Achilles’ heel men from 18 to 49 years. Among them it registered the lowest percentage of voting intention; Or in other words, they are the most dependent on their rivals. And he knew it.
“The polls show that some black men, especially young men, are considering voting for Donald Trump. They see him as the best option for the economy,” a reporter told him during a meeting with the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists last week.
“What is your message to these young black people who feel left out? How can your policies improve their lives?”
“I appreciate the spirit of the question, but it is very important not to think that someone has black men in their pocket,” the Democratic candidate replied.
“Black men are like any other voting group: you have to get their vote.”
The question in the air is how much Divine 9 can really help you with this and other support.
The answer will be given to us by the analysis after the election.
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