News
Page 8
Street Roots • March 18-24,
Courting
color
Steve Phillips, author of “Brown is The
New White,” says candidates need totia
better attention to the rainbow coalition
that is the new American majority
BY JOANNE ZUHL
STAFF WRITER
f today’s political scene has left you
feeling less than hopeful, consider the
work of Steve Phillips.
Phillips is a civil rights lawyer and senior
fellow at the Center for American Progress
who has analyzed the body electorate and
Steve Phillips: The definition of
its, major population growth among people
progressive
is admittedly elusive. I felt the
of color. His book, “Brown is the New
'best data set are the exit polls. So I use the
White: How.the Demographic Revolution
2012 exit polls as data - both because it
Has Created a New American Majority,”
was after the “hope and change”
lays out the progressive power in the
enthusiasm had worn off, but also because
numbers: Combined, progressive people of
the president had a record: universal
color and whites make up 51 percent of all
health care, immigration reform, equal pay
eligible voters today.
for women. People voted for his record, so
Candidates should take note.
he had gone on the record and those were
That’s the underlying message behind
the elements. That’s why I define
Phillip’s best-selling book - that despite
progressive on lines of universal health
some of the dominant rhetoric of this
care, immigration reform, equal pay for
year’s presidential cycle, progressives hold
women, marriage equality - that was an
the cards.
agenda that he was clear about and people
Phillips was looking forward to casting
voted to for four more years of that. So
his first vote for president when he began
that gives us the data set, so who wanted
following Jesse Jackson’s 1984 presidential
four more years of that is 81 percent of
campaign. He was only 20, and he
voters of color and 39 percent of white
describes the experience as transformative
voters. And when you apply those
- melding his personal interest in the civil
percentages to the entire eligible voter
rights movement and Martin Luther King
population in the country, that’s 51 percent
Jr. with its tangible legacy in the electoral
of the country.
sphere. He felt a part of the continuum
That is the urgency of this book at this
moving forward, witnessing real change
time. Which direction are we going to go?
taking shape.
And to fuse a sense of urgency into the
It was that experience that helped him
Democrats that this structural advantage
see the potential of Barack Obama’s 2008
can be very fleeting if they don’t invest
presidential bid. He co-founded
heavily in it
.
. . .
PowerPAC+, which became the largest
I
BROWN
lw 11«
STEVE PHILLIPS
independent voter mobilizer backing
Obama and other candidates.
Phillips spoke to Street Roots about the
book prior to his engagement with the
Color PAC Action Fund in Portland. We
started by clarifying, for the purpose of his
new book, what he defines as progressive.
Joanne Zuhl: Fleeting in that the
progressives are not going to be progressives
any longer?
S.P.: Because the conservatives and the
Republicans do see this math, and they
have a dual strategy - suppression and
seduction. The suppression continues at
pace - undermining the Voter Rights Act,
creating voter ID laws - and the seduction
continues. They’re running a rainbow
coalition slate for president. And a lot of
their top elected officials - Nikki Haley,
Tim Scott, Marco Rubio - this rainbow
tableau that on its face can be appealing.
J.Z.: You talk about the changes in laws,
movements and population since 1965.
What’s the diverging course that has, even
today, the white population directing the
course of politics?
S.P.: Actually, in 2012, the African-
American turnout was higher than the
white turnout That was the first year that
had happened. The black turnout has
continued to increase over the past decade.
The Latino and Asian population voting is a
different issue. It’s tied into those ’65
realities, but there is a shorter history in
this country. Seventy-four percent of Asian-
American adults are .foreign born, because
it was illegal for Asians to come to this
country. And so there’s not the same
tradition in history in that sense. And then
the biggest challenge is around Latinos,
See COLOR, page 9