Aimee Allison speaks at the She the People Presidential Forum at Texas Southern University on April 24, 2019, in Houston, Texas. Allison is founder and president of She the People and a senior fellow at Prism.
Aimee Allison believes in living her politics and standing up for courageous, moral leadership. Speak with her for just a few minutes and it’s clear that she practices those same principles with a very clear goal in mind—elevating women of color to their rightful place in the American democracy.
“This is more than about politics to me,” Allison said late last year, when She the People, the groundbreaking organization she founded, hosted a gathering of hundreds of women of color who are transforming politics. “We’re taking everything forward. It’s about a justice agenda. It’s about creating a country where everyone belongs. It’s about women of color and the saving graces of democracy. And when we come from that place, nothing can touch us.”
Multiculturalism is Allison’s religion. She’s pursued that goal for more than two decades, written about how to build a better world, provided media commentary, and hosted podcasts and radio shows. In addition to founding She the People, she also is president of Democracy in Color, an organization dedicated to empowering the new American majority, which is multiracial, multicultural, and progressive. Her mission is to bring people together, to become a bridge connecting communities, and, perhaps most significantly, to elevate the voices of women of color “as leaders, political strategists, organizers, and voters.”
“Because of her, we’re in a moment where it feels like the world is paying attention to us,” said Rebecca Thompson, a former candidate for state representative in Michigan who advocates for black women running for office. Thompson, who shares her experiences in her work as a career coach, describes Allison’s efforts as game-changing. “Beyond doing amazing work, she is a beautiful human, and her light literally brightens any room she’s in.”
Allison was born in Antioch, California, and has made Oakland her home since the early 1990s. She earned a B.A. in history from Stanford University, and holds a master’s in education from the Stanford Graduate School of Education. Talking about her work, Allison often returns to the new American majority. “Women of color, black women for sure in terms of the highest vote count, but also Asian American women, Latinas, Native women, Arab American women, we’re as a block the fastest-growing and most progressive vote at the polls,” Allison says. ”We dwarf the other groups.”
“We’re not a minority,” she adds. We need to tell other women of color that the country needs us, she urges. And, Allison says, we have to tell the country we need women of color.
Read More
