My Message to a Young Kamala Harris Voter on Breaking Free from 'Systemic Racism'

To you, you know, being a man of color, when exactly was America great? What period was America great? And, and, and, if America was great in that period, would you personally go back to it? Would I go back to 2016 through 2020 in this country? I would, actually. I think America was great, though. And why do you think America was great? Was America great for most of our national history? I think we were, actually. During slavery, during redlining, Jim Crow laws, civil rights movements. I think, was America perfect? No. Yeah, but saying it's great is a very big, um, very big emphasis and a very big extreme that you're jumping. Because when exactly was America great? American is not great for the African-American woman. America is not great for, like, what, are we gonna, what exactly are we, I'm Felicia. Felicia. What other country for an African-American woman is better than the United States of America? Well, I live in the United States of America. Exactly. So I don't want to talk about the United States of America. Right, exactly. So what country, when I talk about whether America is great, I'm not talking about whether America is perfect. Well, that's why I'm confused. Because when was America great for somebody like me? You just told me where someone else was America great. You just told me where somewhere else that America was great. Yeah, exactly. So you just told me, basically, that it wasn't great for me. I think America is the greatest country on planet Earth for you. How? That's what I believe. Because this is a country where you can achieve the maximum of your God-given potential by working hard. I am an African-American woman still facing institutionalized, systematic racism. I don't believe that. Yes, I am. To be true right now. There are points in our history where that was true. I think today, today you are free to achieve. And I would like to talk about how people like to bring up affirmative action as well. Well, let me just address your first point. Let me just address your first point. I think this is the country on Earth where you're able to achieve the maximum of your potential without your skin color standing in your way. This is a country where... That's not true. I believe it is true. That's not true. Bank of America. What are you unable to achieve, ma'am? Wells Fargo. They literally, all of these other banks just got sued for not giving home loans to African-American people. That happened in 2024. So let me just ask you, what do you... The so-called lower of the property value. So let me tell you, Felicia. And it's ramifications of when a certain somebody was president. Donald Trump is running to make America first a reality for all Americans. Let me ask you something very personal, because you made it personal to you. What do you want to achieve in this country that you believe you can't right now because somebody else is stopping you because of your race? Well, right now, as my future career, I want to be a criminal defense attorney. Okay. However, as we can acknowledge, there's only 5% of black lawyers in the United States at this current moment. My question to you is, what are you unable to achieve? Because I think you can achieve that. I believe in you. I believe in you to achieve that. I'm just saying, why is that the case? And the number... Because I believe the number one factor. Why is that the case? I believe the number one factor that determines whether you succeed in this country is not your skin color. It is whether or not you actually put in the effort to do what you want. Yeah. But if you're fighting against an institutionalized system that's going to hold you down, how exactly can you go against that? I think that there is far greater discrimination in this country by employers against employees on the basis of their political beliefs than there is on the basis of their race. They don't know your political beliefs unless you express them. Well, that's... If somebody... They don't know them. How are you being judged on your political views? So, I will tell you, I worked in New York City for 10 years. If somebody wears that red hat at Make America Great Again and walks in, they're going to face more discrimination than somebody who walks in with black skin. I think that's actually true. No, they're not. I think it's true, actually. No, they're not. It wasn't always true. I mean, there's points in our history where the reverse was true, absolutely, but not right now. I don't see you wearing a Make America Great Again hat, but what I'm saying is... Costume change. But what I'm saying is... So, me perceiving you, I'm perceiving you as a man. I'm not perceiving you as a MAGA supporter, Trump supporter, X, Y, Z. I don't perceive you as that until you tell me that is. So, how can you say that somebody's being judged on their political views unless you make those political views known? I can tell you why. That doesn't make any sense. I don't know. I'll tell you a story that you may not be aware of, all right? So, there's a company where a woman, she was wearing a red sweater and held Veterans Day at every Friday to acknowledge veterans in her workplace. It was a little affinity group they created. That's what they called it. Now, there was an employee who said that he considered that to be a microaggression. The employer made her stop doing that. She said, okay, I'm just going to bring my red sweater and put it on the back. On Fridays, on the back of my chair. The employer still stopped her from being able to do that, too. That's political discrimination based on this anti-racist environment we've created in America. So, the irony is in the name of fighting racism, we've actually created political— But she lost her job. She would lose her job unless she stopped wearing a red sweater. I think it's wrong in America. She was hired before that, though. So, that means on the basis of they did not know what political affiliation she had. She was about to be fired. She was about to be fired for standing for veterans. Your whole argument was that you are being— There's viewpoint discrimination in America today. There is. My thing is, you are saying that you got discriminated against because— Or this woman, in this case, got discriminated against because of her political views. No one knew her political views until she came in wearing red. You are making an assumption that because of her political views that they automatically fired her or did that stuff. They hired her because of her work ethic, because of her ability. Let me just share something with you. I don't know who this woman is, but that doesn't make any sense. Are you a senior? I'm a senior. You're a senior. And what are you doing for work next? You're going to be a criminal defense attorney? You're going to law school? Yeah, right now I'm interning. So let me just share something with you, not as a matter of politics, but as a matter of somebody who—I'm 39. I've had success in this country. My parents came from nothing. I've lived the full American dream, and I'm really grateful for that. And this is where I'm coming from when I say this. I say this to you just as a fellow citizen who wants to see you succeed and achieve your dreams. The more you view yourself as a victim, the more likely you are to be one. The more you view yourself as empowered, the more likely you are to be empowered. I want you to be empowered. I don't want you to see a world in which there's some invisible lines of hierarchy based on race or gender and that you're being discriminated against, because the more you see the world that way, the more likely you are not to achieve your dreams. Versus if you look at the world and see the world that I see, and this is what America offers to say that you have your own God-given talents, how are you going to be able to achieve the maximum of your potential? I promise you, nobody is going to stop you in modern America because of your skin color. It's just not going to happen. I would love to hear one example where you tried to get a job and you couldn't get it because of your skin color. I'm sure that's true of people who lived in the 1950s. I'm sure it's true of people who lived in the 1850s. Now, what you're telling me is that they are saying that I can't get a job based on my skin color. They're not going to outright say that because of different laws and policies in place, which is why the systemic racism is part of the conversation. So look, I think that here's the thing. Here's the thing. In the 1960s, Martin Luther King said we want to live in a country where we're judged not on our color of our skin, but on the content of our character and our contributions. We are 60 years later in a promised land far greater than he could have ever imagined. We've elected a black president of the United States. We've had a black attorney general. We've had black success at every level in this country. They can't explicitly say that because they'll get sued. They'll get different legal ramifications, and that's where the intersectionality of the institutionalized systemic racism comes in because you can't blatantly say that. You hide behind policies and laws to say that. Tell me if we can find some common ground because that's my goal of being here. Do you agree with me? The best way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race. Do you agree with me on that? If you want to stop discrimination on the basis of race, let's stop discriminating on the basis of race. Can we agree on that? You want me to agree with it? You know what? Fine. So, at least we can agree that's a principle. It's a loaded statement, but okay. It's a loaded statement. So, I think that part of— It's a loaded statement. And let me give you one. You gave me a little give. I'm going to give you one give, too, all right? I'm going to give you one give, too. I think that—and this may surprise a lot of people in the audience, but it's true, and I'm going to say it. In the last, probably, year, I think we have started to see something I never would have imagined seeing 10 years ago, which is the slightest uptick of actual anti-Black racism in the country. And I'll tell you why we're seeing it. It's coming as a backlash to years of affirmative action, because when you take something away from somebody on the basis of their skin color, there's no greater way to foster racism than to take something of value from somebody based on their skin color, and it's sad to see. I don't want to see that in this country, but the best way to get there is restore merit over group quotas. And I think there's no middle ground. Either you believe in merit or you believe in group quotas. You can't have both. I stand for merit, and I think that's better for Americans of every skin color, including Black Americans as well. At my company, I built—I found a multibillion-dollar company. I had a Black executive, okay? And I don't care about her skin color. It doesn't matter to me. I've had Black executives at multiple companies I've built. I'll tell you a sad story that happened. She got her job because she was good at what she did. That's why we recruited her. A guy who wasn't particularly as good at his job didn't get the promotion to the position that she held. You hear the conversation, what do you hear? It says, oh, she only got her job because of her race and gender. Well, actually, in her case, that just wasn't true at all. But the reason he's able to say that is because most other companies in the industry are applying racial quotas to actually get those jobs. So it's not good for White Americans or Asians. It's not good for Black Americans either. What we need is colorblind meritocracy in America. And affirmative action, I do think, is the biggest form of institutional racism that exists today. That's what I believe.