The Democratic National Convention in my home city of Chicago was a four-day argument for a particular approach to social change; an approach based less on policy and more on culture — the kind of people we are, what we do with our lives, and how we interact with one another.
Consider the people featured on stage: a Texas sheriff responsible for patrolling part of the southern border; a Michigan police officer who turned a protest against cops into a unity march; a public defender who praised Kamala Harris’s actions as a prosecutor; and a selection of cabinet members and governors who served in the military.
Think, too, about the themes that were emphasized: inspiration over criticism; cooperation over division; identity as a source of pride, not a status of victimization; and unabashed flag-waving patriotism rather than critiques of American imperialism.
Speaker after speaker said some version of “This is about all of us, not us versus them.” Oprah even quoted John Lewis’s famous line: “We may have come here on different ships, but we are all in the same boat now.”
The core message could not have been clearer: The American story is about freedom defeating slavery and pluralism defeating division.
Recall some of Kamala Harris’s signature lines:
“Believe in what can be, unburdened by what has been.”
“Stop your complaining and tell me what you’re going to do about it.”
“The greatest privilege on earth … the privilege and pride of being an American.”
“Make the most of your opportunities because opportunity is not available to everyone.”
“Never let anyone tell you who you are; you show them who you are.”
These statements reflect a particular orientation about life, our country, and one another. They are about character and values, the kinds of things coaches, teachers, and parents look to instill in kids. Kamala Harris is saying that social change is an immigrant single mother like her own telling her two daughters to “Never do anything half-assed.” Tim Walz is saying that social change is becoming a coach of a 0-27 high school football team and helping them become state champions.
Nonprofit organizations exist in a wider cultural context. For the past 10 years or so, that wider context has included the culture of identity-based protest politics. Intellectuals such as Ta-Nehisi Coates, Ibram X. Kendi, and Nikole Hannah-Jones put slavery and racism at the center of the American story. Protest movements like Black Lives Matter encouraged open critique of everything from police to public schools.
Talking about how people’s identity made them a victim of injustice became standard operating procedure within social change circles. In fact, it was considered a form of making social change.
Did the 2024 Democratic National Convention change the culture?
There was virtually no airtime at the DNC given to protests or identity politics. (I am simply being descriptive here, not assigning value.) Kamala Harris, the first woman of color to serve as vice president and receive a major party nomination for president, did not even explicitly mention her race or her gender during her speech.
The contrast between the vision offered by the Kamala Harris-Tim Walz ticket and the identity politics ethos of confrontation could not be starker. The latter speaks of America as riddled with systems of oppression that must be dismantled. The former characterizes America as the greatest story ever told and believes that writing the next chapter means excelling at responsible positions in the social order such as teacher, coach, police officer, and prosecutor.
It’s safe to say that many staff members at nonprofit organizations are far more accustomed to chanting slogans such as “Defund the Police” than “USA, USA, USA.” The most common image on the walls of many nonprofit organizations is the clenched fist raised in the air. Clenched fists can feel threatening to those outside of your circles. They can destroy things and hurt people.
The Harris-Walz ticket’s core message is embodied by the candidates themselves: a half-Black, half-Indian woman raised in Oakland, Calif., by an immigrant single mother professor, and a white guy raised on the Nebraska plains by a small-town school superintendent and a family of farmers. Despite their surface differences, the two candidates share common values, hopes, and dreams for the nation. The image is diverse hands joined together in unity, which was actually the original symbol of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
If the Harris-Walz campaign does indeed change the culture of nonprofits, expect these types of scenes within our organizations:
An employee who was formed in the resistance culture launches into a familiar critique of systems of oppression, opening with the phrase, “As a marginalized person of color …”
A staff person responds, “You’re letting other people tell you who you are. Go show them who you are by doing excellent work.”
Or maybe: “We don’t complain here. We go do something about it.”
Or even: “You have the privilege of living in the greatest nation on earth. And you have the rare opportunity to work for a nonprofit organization whose mission is to make the world better. If you can’t take pride in that, and do your best work as a result, then maybe the opportunity should go to someone else.”
Personally, I’ve been hoping for a culture shift away from anger and division and toward unity and joy for a while now. My guess is that many people in the social sector feel the same.
As I reflect on this past week and the culture change I believe it signals, I’ve been reading Gwendolyn Brooks’s poem “Speech to the Young, Speech to the Progress-Towards.” Here’s my favorite line: “Even if you are not ready for day / it cannot always be night.”
