Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Where Is the “Real America”?

a group of people arranged in the shape of the United states of America map

A group of people arranged in the shape of the United states of America map.

Getty Images, attjeacock

Is there such a thing as a “real America”? A battle now rages over this simple question. Some Democratic party operatives claim the real America are so-called “Trump voters,” who they say they need to better “study” in order to win future elections. Many Republican voices argue the real America are just those who support the new administration 100% of the time. Still, others assert that different demographics or geography comprise the real America. It’s as if the real America is one particular slice or another of our nation.

These caricatures lead us sorely astray. But there is a real America. I work in it every day.


Just last week, I spoke to a gathering of over 100 Black elected officials from all across Mississippi. They represented very different communities—from cities to the Delta. This is the real America.

Back in March, I spoke at Goodwill Industries International’s annual leadership convention, which was attended by hundreds of local Goodwill leaders from practically every state. They were some of the strongest workforce development and disability advocates I’ve ever met. This is the real America.

Earlier this year, I was in Selma, AL, to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday. I marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge with thousands of my fellow Americans who represented all kinds of political backgrounds, ethnicities, and creeds. This is the real America.

In just the past year, I’ve worked with communities in rapidly-growing North Carolina, the breadbasket of California, suburban Connecticut, rural Kentucky, and post-industrial Michigan. I’ve been engaging with community leaders in Jim Jordan’s district in Ohio, Matt Gaetz’s district in Florida, and Lauren Boebert’s district in Colorado. For years now, I’ve been working deeply with scores of community members in Reading, PA, a once predominantly-white community that today is over 70% Latino. Every single one of these communities is the real America too.

Everywhere I go, I find the real America. Because it is all of these places. It is all of us.

We must urgently embrace the notion that the real America includes all of us. The very future of our country depends on it.

Make no mistake, we do have real differences in this country. Our divides can be sharp at times, even threaten to overrun us. But the concerns I hear from people across our nation have grown increasingly consistent, which is something we can build upon. They say we’ve lost our sense of decency, compassion, and empathy for one another. Many people feel increasingly left out and left behind. And amid this reality, I find enormous agreement among Americans about what really matters to us in our daily lives; Issues like healthcare, community safety, youth and education, and mental health. These are universal.

Please don’t mistake this as an argument simply about how we have more in common than most people think. That has almost become cliché these days. It’s true but there’s something deeper and more profound that we must lift up if the real America includes everyone.

Because here’s what else I’ve experienced across the real America. People today have a deep and abiding yearning to step forward and help put their communities and this nation on a better path forward. Apathy is not the issue. We are not passive, wishing for some elected politician to wave a wand that magically solves our shared concerns. People feel an urge to step forward and take action together, but many of us feel stuck, unsure of what to do and how to move forward effectively. And many of us are frustrated—indeed, even enraged—that only some of us are deemed part of the real America, that only some of our voices matter, that only some of our contributions are judged worthy.

To create a sense of belonging and possibility, we must embrace the idea that the real America is all of us. We must commit to seeing and hearing one another. We must put each other’s innate dignity back at the top of the agenda. And we must commit to building together.

Only by building together can we restore our belief that we can get things done together. Not as Republicans or Democrats or Independents. Not as urban or rural or suburban enclaves. But as Americans.

Because we—all of us, no exceptions—are the real America.


Rich Harwood is the president and founder of The Harwood Institute.

Read More

Two speech bubbles overlapping.

Recent data shows that Americans view members of the opposing political party overly negatively, leading people to avoid political discourse with those who hold different views.

Getty Images, Richard Drury

How To Motivate Americans’ Conversations Across Politics

Introduction

A large body of research shows that Americans hold overly negative distortions of those across the political spectrum. These misperceptions—often referred to as "Perception Gaps"—make civil discourse harder, since few Americans are eager to engage with people they believe are ideologically extreme, interpersonally hostile, or even threatening or inferior. When potential disagreement feels deeply uncomfortable or dangerous, conversations are unlikely to begin.

Correcting these distortions can help reduce barriers to productive dialogue, making Americans more open to political conversations.

Keep ReadingShow less
Divided American flag

Rev. Dr. F. Willis Johnson writes on the serious impacts of "othering" marginalized populations and how, together, we must push back to create a more inclusive and humane society.

Jorge Villalba/Getty Images

New Rules of the Game: Weaponization of Othering

By now, you have probably seen the viral video. Taylor Townsend—Black, bold, unbothered—walks off the court after a bruising match against her white European opponent, Jelena Ostapenko. The post-match glances were sharper than a backhand slice. Next came the unsportsmanlike commentary—about her body, her "attitude," and a not-so-veiled speculation about whether she belonged at this level. To understand America in the Trump Redux era, one only needs to study this exchange.

Ostapenko vs. Townsend is a microcosm of something much bigger: the way anti-democratic, vengeful politics—modeled from the White House on down—have bled into every corner of public life, including sports. Turning “othering” into the new national pastime. Divisive politics has a profound impact on marginalized groups. Neither Ostapenko nor Donald Trump invented this playbook, yet Trump and his sycophants are working to master it. Fueled by a sense of grievance, revenge, and an insatiable appetite for division, he—like Ostapenko—has normalized once somewhat closeted attitudes.

Keep ReadingShow less
Hand blocking someone speaking

The Third Way has recently released a memo stating that the “stampede away from the Democratic Party” is partly a result of the language and rhetoric it uses.

Westend61/Getty Images

To Protect Democracy, Democrats Should Pay Attention to the Third Way’s List of ‘Offensive’ Words

More than fifty years ago, comedian George Carlin delivered a monologue entitled Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television.” It was a tribute to the legendary Lenny Bruce, whose “nine dirty words” performance led to his arrest and his banning from many places.

His seven words were “p—, f—, c—, c———, m———–, and t—.”

Keep ReadingShow less