OPINION | From Jesse to Barack to Kamala: A Legacy of Inclusion and the Fight for America’s Future

by Eddie Wong

Even after his name boomed out of the public announcement system, the crowd did not begin to stir until they realized that the man being wheeled across the United Center Stage at the Democratic National Convention was the Rev. Jesse Jackson. It was shocking to see the once-mighty orator now living with Parkinson’s. Jackson’s smile lit up the arena and his vigorous two thumbs-up spoke volumes amid the crescendo of cheers and tears that acknowledged this leader who 40 years ago electrified convention-goers with his “rainbow quilt” speech. In 1984, his presidential campaign placed inclusion over exclusion and set the template for a progressive Democratic coalition. And three nights after Jackson’s appearance at the 2024 Democratic National Convention, Vice President Kamala Devi Harris would become the nation’s first Black and South Asian woman to be nominated for president of the United States.

I was proud to be a Northern California director of the 1984 Jackson campaign and the national field director of the 1988 Jackson campaign. I had the privilege of traveling with Jesse for many years as his executive assistant. But I was not the only Asian American who responded to his call to join the Rainbow Coalition of the locked-out: poor people, family farmers, workers, students, Arab Americans, Black Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, Asian Americans, gays and lesbians, and more. We made our voices heard from City Hall to the White House and changed American politics. Asian Americans rallied to support Jackson’s 1984 and 1988 campaigns because he was the only candidate who acknowledged our historical exclusion as well as our monumental achievements.

I’m equally proud to have joined the Asian American Leadership Council for then-Sen. Barack Obama as he launched his presidential campaign in 2008. And today, I’m working with Asian Americans for Democracy to elect the Harris/Walz ticket.

There’s a single thread woven through the campaigns of Jackson, Obama, and Harris that touches Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) people in a profound way. It is simply this: They are Black leaders who see our humanity and value us as political partners in the grand enterprise of making our nation fulfill its highest ideals of equality and justice. When Jesse Jackson broke open the Democratic Party, we went from the margins to the mainstream. Moreover, Jackson laid out a winning strategy in 1984: “If Blacks vote in great numbers, progressive whites win. It’s the only way progressive whites win. If Blacks vote in great numbers, Hispanics win. When Blacks, Hispanics, and progressive whites vote, women win. When women win, children win. When women and children win, workers win. We must all come up together … Our time has come.”

Jackson added, “The Rainbow Coalition includes Asian Americans, now being killed in our streets — scapegoats for the failures of corporate, industrial, and economic policies.” Today, we still face that threat as Trump ramps up anti-immigrant hysteria.

Jesse Jackson’s call for inclusion also addressed the matter of race as a source of division: “Our time has come. We must leave the racial battleground and come to economic common ground and moral higher ground.” His acknowledgment of our shared fate was echoed in Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. “This moment — this election — is our chance to keep, in the 21st century, the American promise alive,” said Obama to a cheering crowd of 80,000 at Denver’s Mile High Stadium as he accepted the Democratic nomination for president. It was a call for national renewal and personal responsibility to one another, i.e., “the fundamental belief that I am my brother’s keeper; I am my sister’s keeper.” 

And what is America’s promise if not caring for the many and not the few? Obama concluded his speech that night by saying, “America, we cannot turn back. Not with so much work to be done. Not with so many children to educate, and so many veterans to care for … in this election, we must pledge once more to march into the future.”

The torch has now been passed to another Black leader who profoundly understands the Asian American experience as the child of Shyamala Gopalan Harris, an Indian American scientist. Kamala Devi Harris takes strands of Jesse Jackson and Barack Obama’s oratory and weaves in the momentousness of this moment where democracy sits on knife’s edge. Harris warned, “Our nation, with this election, has a precious, fleeting opportunity to move past the bitterness, cynicism, and divisive battles of the past, a chance to chart a new way forward. Not as members of any one party or faction, but as Americans.” Harris drew upon her past victories to make a larger point: “We were underestimated at practically every turn. But we never gave up. Because the future is always worth fighting for. And that’s the fight we are in right now — a fight for America’s future.”

AANHPI folks grasp Harris’ message deeply because we are reminded of our past every day by politicians who advocate banning Chinese and other foreign nationals from owning land. We hear them denounce ethnic studies. We know that restrictions lead to exclusion. We know all about the erasure of our histories. When Harris says, “We’re not going back,” she speaks not only for Asians but for women, People of Color, and workers who have all benefited from progressive reforms.

Can we build a massive movement among people of goodwill to reach the discouraged and the disparaged to vote for Harris/Walz in the remaining weeks before the Nov. 5 election? We can and we must.

We have difficult problems before us: war, climate change, inflation, and inequality. Some people are reluctant to vote for Harris because they want to see an arms embargo against Israel and an end to the killing in Gaza. But whatever disagreements we may have must be weighed against the overwhelming unity we share in preventing the loss of our democracy to an authoritarian megalomaniac.

The road from Jesse to Barack to Kamala shows us that high ideals make good politics. We are inspired by their words. Now we must “do something” to make those aspirations a reality.

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Eddie Wong is a longtime activist in Asian American politics and culture. He is the editor/publisher of East Wind e-zine and a founding member of Asian Americans for Democracy.