HarrisSunday on MSNBC’s “AM Joy,” Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) said people use the term “identity politics,” to “try to silence you or shut you up.”

Harris said, “This term identity politics, people will use that term— it’s like people used to talk about the race card. They bring this term up when you talk about issues that are about race, about sexual orientation, religion. They bring it up when we are talking about civil rights issues as a way to marginalize the issue, as a way frankly to try to silence you or shut you up.”

She added, “We need to call it what it is, which is to try and divert away from a conversation that needs to happen in America. Why? One, because we must speak truth. racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, anti-Semitism are all real in this country. We need to have that conversation and address that. Two, and this is equally important, how America deals with the issues and the disparities and also the hate that causes these issues to become lethal in proportion. How America deals with these issues is a matter of american identity. This is not about identity politics. If it is, it’s about the identity of the United States of America. How we handle the issues will be about our collective identity.”

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