It was only eight days ago that everything changed. Dayyum what an actual week (as opposed to my diary last week, Top Comments: What A Year The Last 36 Hours Have Been Edition). And on that Sunday night, history was made. From this article at The 19th:
It was Sunday at 5:24 p.m. when Rep. Joyce Beatty predicted history on national television.
Discussing the news that President Joe Biden was ending his campaign and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris to succeed him as the 2024 Democratic nominee for president, the Ohio Democrat dropped a casual mention on MSNBC that there would be a call later.
“As a Black woman, I’m going to join later tonight with so many Black women,” Beatty said. “It will probably be some 20,000 or 30,000 women trying to get on this call because it’s personal for us and we stand with Vice President Harris.”
“This Call” was the regular weekly #WinwithBlackWomen meeting. With a 2020 beginning of ~50 participants, calls over the past four years averaged near 1000 participants. On July 21st, three hours after Rep. Beatty mentioned The Call, 44000 Black women and their allies showed up and with another 50000 watching as it streamed to other platforms because Zoom was, well, full (according to this article, “Zoom typically maxes out at 1,000 participants but a female executive at the video conferencing company stepped in to increase the capacity to 40,000”). It rasied more than $1.5M for Harris. This event will and SHOULD go down in history as a galvanizing moment in the incredible momentum wave for Kamala Harris.
The following night, a Black Men For Harris event hosted by #WinWithBlackMen drew 53000 registrations and raised more than $1.3M from over 17000 donors. And then on Tuesday July 23rd, Moms Demand Action founder Shannon Watts said on Xitter “Time to organize a white women conference call like the Black women and men have to support Vice President Kamala Harris. Who’s in?”.
I have to be 100% honest… I nearly didn’t sign up to participate. I was concerned that this was Yet Another Example of performative white action, a FOMO moment to make sure “we” got credit. I told a friend this, who helped me see that this was happening because it was our turn to stand up for Kamala and support Black women. To discuss the privilege and space we have lived in and way we so often have failed in our support by giving our votes to Republicans. 52 heckin percent of us voted for Trump in 2016… to be clear, NOT me!!!
I’m so glad I decided to join on the call along with 164000 other white women and allies. It was absolutely inspiring even as we broke the Internet (I think I got dropped and readded to the call half a dozen times?) and I am glad I was a drop in the $8.5M raised. OK, a very very small drop. Almost homeopathic. But a DROP!
There have been zoom calls for thousands of Latina women, and then again for South Asian women. Over 20000 LGBTQ+ people Came Out For Kamala on Thursday.
As I type this very sentence, I’m on a call (well, a youtube stream :-)) with 30000 Women For Harris listening to an incredible group of women dedicated to seeing Kamala elected! in 45 minutes, Mr. Brillig will be getting on a call with 100000 other White Dudes for Harris.
And tomorrow, I will be on a call with I have NO idea how many thousands of folks where Kamala herself will speak. Here’s where to sign up.
OK Brillig, why should we be so excited about a bunch of zooms? Because we NEED to keep this energy and momentum up. We NEED this HOPE. Republicans are going to throw everything at Kamala Harris, at whoever her running mate will be, at us, you know how it’s gonna be. We can NOT lose this moment and if that means I will be on a call with thousands of friends, family, and people I do not know… well that’s what I’m going to do!!!
I’ll still make sure Top Comments happens, though :). Hop below the fold and see what we have for you tonight!
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TOP COMMENTS
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From eeff:
Nominating this one from lineatus, from my diary I just watched ONE of the best take downs of a Politician EVER!!!
TOP MOJO
Top Mojo for yesterday (Sunday), July 28th 2024, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary on FAQing Top Mojo.
