“I have a problem, guys, with that phrase, ‘identity politics,’” Sen. Kamala Harris told the progressive gathering Netroots Nation, wading into a messaging debate roiling Democrats ahead of the midterm elections. | Matt Slocum/AP Photo Harris blasts critics of 'identity politics'

NEW ORLEANS — Sen. Kamala Harris accused critics of “identity politics” of weaponizing the term to diminish issues of race, gender and sexual orientation, pressing Democrats on Friday to address those issues head on.

“I have a problem, guys, with that phrase, ‘identity politics,’” Harris told the progressive gathering Netroots Nation, wading into a messaging debate roiling Democrats ahead of the midterm elections. “Because let’s be clear, when people say that, it’s a pejorative. That phrase is used to divide, and it is used to distract. Its purpose is to minimize and marginalize issues that impact all of us. It is used to try and shut us up.”


Harris, one of the Democratic Party’s top 2020 presidential prospects, said Democrats “won’t be shut up, and we won’t be silenced.”

“These issues that they’re trying to diminish and demean,” she added, “are the very issues that will define our identity as Americans.”

Harris’ remarks follow criticism — including from some within the Democratic Party — that a full-throated embrace of racial, ethnic and gender issues could distract from a broader Democratic platform.

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But Harris took aim at the Democratic Party, too, saying “the folks who helped build the Democratic Party and have been the backbone of the Democratic Party have not always been given equal voice in the Democratic Party.”

“We’ve all heard how critical black women were to Doug Jones’ victory,” she said of Democrats’ success in the Alabama Senate race. “But that didn’t just magically happen. It happened because black women have been putting in the work, going door to door, organizing even when the cameras were focused elsewhere.”

Noting that black women are far more likely than white women to die of pregnancy-related causes, Harris said, “It’s time to respect [black women’s] leadership. It’s time we addressed the issues that they uniquely face.”

