Weeks after a Zoom call for Black women saw 44,000 participants raise over $US1.5 million ($2.3 million) for Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign, a similar event was held by a group of white women this week which raised $US11 million ($16.8 million).
The ‘White Women: Answer the Call’ virtual fundraising event drew a crowd of up to 200,000 supporters, including high-profile celebrities and politicians such as P!nk, Megan Rapinoe, Glennon Doyle and US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.
One participant’s contribution has been making the rounds on social media — former teacher turned TikTok influencer, Arielle Fodor. During the Zoom call, Fordor encouraged other white women to “use our privilege to make positive changes” and refrain from “talking over or speaking for BIPOC individuals”.
“We are here because BIPOC women have tapped us in as white women to step up, listen and get involved this election season,” Fodor said.
“This is a really important time and we all need to use our voices and influence for the greater good. No matter who you are you are all influencers in some way.”
Clips of her advice, which include that white women should “learn from and amplify the voices of those who have been historically marginalised”, have garnered over 4.3 million views.
The online event, which is part of a growing number of virtual grassroots campaign sessions, was organised by Shannon Watts, a member of the anti-gun-violence group Moms Demand Action.
“White women are the largest voting bloc in this country,” she told CBS News. “We make up 40 per cent of the voters and so we are divided by religious, marital and education lines.”
“And even a tiny shift in our voting patterns can swing an entire election, and so that was a conversation that we needed to have on this call.”
Speaking to The Cut, the high profile political activist said she was being tagged on Twitter by black women, calling her to support Harris’ campaign.
“A lot of the conversation on our Zoom was centred around a course correction, something that black women don’t have to do,” Watts said. “They’ve been doing this work for decades and they’ve been on the right side of the issue.”
“[There was] a lot of regret among white women about what happened in the last couple of elections,” she added.
“The majority of us voted for Donald Trump instead of Hillary Clinton and the next year, even more white women voted for Trump than Biden. But based on the energy we’re seeing, I’m very hopeful we will finally flip the script.”
On Wednesday this week, at the large gathering of Black media professionals in Chicago, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump openly questioned Vice President Harris’ identity as a Black woman.
“She was always of Indian heritage, and she was only promoting Indian heritage,” Trump said at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Chicago.
“I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago, when she happened to turn Black, and now she wants to be known as Black. So I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?”
“I respect either one, but she obviously doesn’t, because she was Indian all the way, and then all of a sudden, she made a turn and she went — she became a Black person. I think somebody should look into that too.”
Overnight, Harris campaign communications director Michael Tyler released a statement condemning Trump’s comments.
“The hostility Donald Trump showed onstage today is the same hostility he has shown throughout his life, throughout his term in office and throughout his campaign for president as he seeks to regain power and inflict his harmful Project 2025 agenda on the American people,” the statement read.
“Trump lobbed personal attacks and insults at Black journalists the same way he did throughout his presidency — while he failed Black families and left the entire country digging out of the ditch he left us in. Donald Trump has already proven he cannot unite America, so he attempts to divide us.”
Harris, who has both Jamaican and Indian heritage, remains the only White House candidate who has qualified to compete for the Democratic presidential nomination.
According to a statement released this week by the Democratic National Committee, Harris will likely seek her party’s nomination uncontested, as voting begins on August 1 and conclude four days later on August 5.