White Dudes for Harris: We reject MAGA racism and misogyny

A few of the 200,000+ participants in the 'White Dudes for Harris' Zoom call.

“Trump and MAGA don’t speak for white men, and we won’t remain silent to the peril this fascist movement poses. We can help make history by electing Kamala Harris, the first African American and South Asian woman president in November.”

Those sentiments reverberated throughout a Zoom call on July 29, attended by nearly 200,000 “White Dudes for Harris.” The call included labor leaders, elected officials, Biden administration officials, celebrities, three NFL quarterbacks, and tens of thousands of activists.

The response to the hastily called gathering reflects how Harris’s candidacy has electrified the nation, turned the election upside down, and inspired an energetic mass movement almost overnight.

A “Win with Black Women” call on July 21, with 90,000 participants, inspired this event. “Black Men for Harris,” “South Asians for Harris,” and “White Women for Harris” followed. The events also raised millions of dollars for the campaign.

This Zoom call generated over $4 million for the campaign and invited participants to canvass, text, and phone bank in the battleground states. At least one white dude wasn’t sharing in the excitement, though. Elon Musk temporarily suspended the White Dudes for Harris account on X (Twitter), alleging a violation of service terms, but he couldn’t dampen their message.

“Why organize white dudes?” asked veteran campaign organizer Ross Morales Rocketto. “A lot of people felt uncomfortable about the call. That’s understandable,” since white men often organized with pointy hats on.

“But the left has been ceding white men for far too long to the right,” he said. Indeed, the centerpiece of Trump’s campaign is targeting men, especially white men, with racism and toxic masculinity to build the fascist MAGA movement.

“Trump won over 60% of white men in both 2016 and 2020. That’s going to stop tonight. We know the vast majority of white men are actually not MAGA supporters,” declared Rocketto.

Harris could win the election easily if the percentage of white men voting for her increased by just a few points over Biden’s 2020 performance. Those on the call vowed to rise to the challenge and engage white male voters, especially in the battleground states and districts.

Actor Josh Gad, known for voicing Olaf in the movie Frozen, reminded the audience of the horrible aftermath of the 2016 election. Gad said he wept, feeling he had let his wife and daughters down.

“We had a chance to elect the first woman as president. Instead, a disgusting misogynist won,” said Gad. “That feeling of dread and shame is something I’m not willing to allow myself to feel again. We owe it to the next generation of girls to not allow that hellscape times 2025 all over again.”

“This time there’s a fundamental difference. Yes, the fear is there,” said Gad. “But also something I haven’t felt in a long time. Hope. Here we have someone who doesn’t look like the others, sound like the others, and who isn’t like the others. That’s a generational opportunity. I will be there with you banging on the glass ceiling until the damn thing shatters once and for all.”

Many of the speakers reflected on how destructive and dehumanizing white male supremacy is to women on the receiving end and to the men intoxicated by it. The challenges men face “often turn into violent and destructive behavior towards themselves or other people,” said Rocketto.

“Most (men) just want a better life for themselves and their families. There’s a crisis of loneliness in this country. Many of us feel the loneliest. Men represent 75% of deaths from despair like suicide and substance abuse,” he said.

Rocketto said the changing economy has left many hard-working folks behind. At the same time, men are captive to the myth that they must be the protectors and providers for their families in a society that doesn’t allow that.

MAGA has co-opted the toxic masculinity trope, exacerbating and feeding into the loneliness and mental health crises, leading to a lot of self-destructive behavior. It’s time for a different concept of masculinity, he said.

Many speakers reflected on the unique role white men have to help other white men free themselves from the influences of destructive white male supremacy and instead see freedom, fulfillment, and happiness in human community, equality, diversity, and inclusion.

“Equality and prosperity are not mutually exclusive,” said musician Josh Groban. It’s easier for a white guy to say, ‘Oh, I’ll be quiet,’ when the world has been built for you. It’s easy to assume someone else will step up. I’m proud to raise my hand and say this is something I believe so fully in, and I’m excited by the galvanizing of the Harris campaign.”

Also on the call were several leaders of the labor movement, including Jimmy Williams, Jr., general president of the Painters Union, which, along with the North American Building Trades Council and the AFL-CIO, have endorsed Harris.

“Nothing screams white dude more than a construction union,” said Williams. “Organized labor is proud to be united to elect Kamala Harris as president in the most important election of our lifetime.”

Williams said the Biden-Harris administration policies and historic legislation passed by the Democratic Congress have stimulated the economy, benefiting white construction workers and all workers and their families. The alternative is Project 2025 and more Trump lies.

“Joe Biden was the most pro-labor president of my lifetime,” said Williams. “I’m scared to death if we go back to another Trump administration, one that left working construction white men behind but had a way of organizing around hate and division.

“We can’t sit by quietly like we did in 2016,” said Williams. “We have to speak the truth to our neighbors, sisters, and brothers. The only candidate on the ballot supporting the labor movement is Vice President Harris. We can’t allow division around race, misogyny, and xenophobia to be the thing that sets us backward.”

Mitch Landrieu, former mayor of New Orleans, blasted Trump and the Republicans for their racist and misogynist attacks on Harris, who is “carrying on her shoulders 248 years of pain, agony, hope, and frustration (of racist oppression). No matter what she’s accomplished, she’s never good enough because they’re always moving the line.”

“I’ll just say this to the white men of America: This idea that what other people get [white men] lose. That when other people benefit, we get left behind. That’s absolutely not true,” said Landrieu.

“The idea of ‘out of many, one’ is a better way to live. But you have to stand up for it. This election is going to be won when a coalition comes together that believes when we do things together, we are better. And white men have to show up.”

Harris is standing for a positive agenda, “namely freedom. I’m so glad she’s making this the theme of her campaign,” said Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

“And yes, women’s freedom is ‘Exhibit A’ after Donald Trump demolished the right to choose. Men are freer in a country where a president stands up for things like abortion care, access to birth control, and IVF. And certainly, my husband and I are freer when our president supports our right to be married to who we love.”

Buttigieg said universal health care, action on the climate crisis, common-sense gun reform, including banning assault rifles, joining a union, and having good infrastructure, all make us freer.

Working to have a better democracy makes us freer, too. “It’s less so that we are saving democracy than building one,” Buttigieg said. “I’m glad to be here for the bad things we’ll stop and the good things we’ll propel.”

“How often in 100 days do you get to change the trajectory of the world?” asked Gov. Tim Walz. “And how often in the world do you make that bastard wake up afterward and know that a Black woman kicked his ass and sent him on the road?”

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CONTRIBUTOR

John Bachtell

John Bachtell is president of Long View Publishing Co., the publisher of People's World. He is active in electoral, labor, environmental, and social justice struggles. He grew up in Ohio, where he attended Antioch College in Yellow Springs. He currently lives in Chicago.