Welcome to my new newsletter! I’m a writer, organizer (of people & money), and a champion of effective women of color leaders. As an out and proud queer, mixed race (Sri Lankan & white), feminist, mother of two, I believe true freedom comes from love, courage, grassroots organizing, solidarity, sound strategy and clear boundaries with the unstrategic. I want us to be free.

In this month’s newsletter: How to flank women of color leaders / How to make this election count at the ballot box and beyond / My core values for philanthropic work + key recommendations for giving in these times / News about my forthcoming book Unrig the Game: What Women of Color Can Teach Everyone About Winning

Three Ways to Make This Election Count by Supporting Women of Colors Leaders

As we head into the final weeks before the election, public enthusiasm for the Harris/Walz ticket is electric and momentum tremendous. The question now is how do we maintain it — not just to win in November, which is critical — to ensure that a Harris Administration is both empowered and held accountable to deliver real and significant improvements in people’s lives, from climate justice, to jobs, to reproductive freedom, to Gaza. 

One of the biggest generators of momentum for past democratic victories has been progressive women of color leaders. Conversely, one of the biggest drags on momentum has been the failure of liberals and progressives to have their backs. This time, we have an opportunity to do things differently and maintain full speed by bolstering these leaders.

“Too often we underestimate people's intelligence — their capacity to hold complex truths, and their distaste for political spin doctoring and fairy tales. We can both flank Harris, blocking for her against racist and misogynist attacks that come her way, and we can push her on the values and policies that reflect the will of our communities.”

Specifically, we can do three things: 

First, we can tell the whole truth about how powerfully WOC leaders have delivered for the promise of democracy. Four years ago, it was Black women, followed closely by other WOC, who kept the country from falling into fascism by beating Trump and delivering a democratic majority in the Senate. In a stunning show of moral clarity, Black women voted more decisively against Trump than any other group. Women of color as a whole are the country’s most progressive and civically engaged voting bloc with higher voter turnout rates than any other group. 

Second, we can block the hailstorm of white supremacy and misogyny that comes for WOC leaders. The 2020 wins were impressive, but the margin of victory was thin. There is no question that if more progressives had bolstered women of color leaders and intervened instead of being bystanders to the harsh conditions in which they worked, this margin would have been greater. The fact is: we could all have won more. 

How do we do a better job this time? And what exactly are we intervening on? Over the past year, while conducting research for a book, I interviewed over 45 of the most prominent and high-impact women of color social justice leaders in the United States. In talking with leaders from Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, to the heads of major national organizations like LaTosha Brown of Black Voters Matter and Ai-jen Poo of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, to local community organizers, and movement elders, like the legendary United Farm Workers leader Dolores Huerta, it is clear that there are concrete things we can actively notice and disrupt:

Everyone wins more when these leaders can focus their full energy on the work. When we notice that a leader is assumed to be incompetent, asked to mammy, given no margin for error, or abandoned when attacked, we can speak up. We can stop standing by and letting it happen. When we see women of color leaders and organizations working effectively toward a multi-racial, feminist democracy, we can invest in them with our dollars, volunteer hours, and connections. From our dinner table conversations, to our workplaces, to our social networks and social media feeds, we have the power to show up better.

Third, we can hold WOC leaders accountable. WHEN Harris wins — I’m saying it this way because I’m calling in that intention with everything I have — the left cannot cut its engines with another just-happy-to-be-in-the-room routine like we did with Obama. Too many progressives withdrew the external protest and pressure that could have created the political space for him to get more done for our communities — including the things he agreed with us on. We refrained from the critique that would push him (a centrist) on some key policies (like deporting more immigrants than any other sitting President). The right doesn’t take its foot of the gas when they get their people in office, they put the pedal to the metal to pass as much of their agenda as humanly possible. We can do the same. 

Too often we underestimate people's intelligence — their capacity to hold complex truths, and their distaste for political spin doctoring and fairy tales. We can both flank Harris, blocking for her against racist and misogynist attacks that come her way, and we can push her on the values and policies that reflect the will of our communities — for example, to keep negotiating for a ceasefire and return of all hostages, while stopping the use of our tax dollars to bankroll a genocide in Gaza. This is how we will win in November and beyond.

Do you have financial resources to invest in the building of a feminist, multiracial democracy? I made a video recommending groups that are doing outstanding electoral work you should consider donating to.

I wrote a book! Unrig the Game: What Women of Color Can Teach Everyone About Winning. A much-needed playbook to supporting and retaining women of color in leadership roles to create lasting change in the world (Random House, March 4, 2025.)

Women of color have repeatedly demonstrated how essential they are in the battle for social and environmental change. From the streets to the ballot box and to Congress, no other demographic group in the nation stands up more strongly against hate and more clearly for freedom, climate action, and human rights. Yet when they are in leadership positions, women of color face persistent and unfair obstacles. For them, too often, the game is rigged.

“A brave book and essential reading for everyone who wants progressive movements to win. A call to bring what has pommeled women of color leaders in the shadows, into the light of the public square, where it can be faced and changed.” – LaTosha Brown, Co-founder of Black Voters Matter and Southern Black Girls Consortium