The Real Ones: How to Disrupt the Hidden Ways Racism Makes Us Less Authentic

The Democratic Party—and society at large—is experiencing an “authenticity crisis,” according to political strategist Rupert’s perceptive debut. While running Julián Castro’s 2020 presidential campaign, Rupert became interested in the thorny concept of authenticity in electoral politics. Specifically, she noticed how demands for authenticity from candidates of color or women candidates put them in an impossible bind, as whiteness and maleness are seemingly defined as authenticity’s “true zero.” Sharing examples from pop culture, politics, and her own life, Rupert shows how authenticity is a concept used to gatekeep or trip up people with marginalized identities, including Castro during his presidential bid. She points to how pundits pigeonholed Castro as a representative of his ethnicity, only to then castigate him for deviating from the box they had assigned him, as well as how Castro himself would at times subtly shift his messaging depending on whether his audience was white or Latino—code-switching that was then pegged as inauthentic. The onus, she argues, is on society at large as well as the party and the candidates themselves to foster in candidates a truer authenticity that prioritizes their own unique perspectives and their principled leadership. (This, she argues, would invite more people of color into politics, not fewer.) Given that parts of her thesis seem to predict New Yor City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s victory, this is worth checking out. (Feb.)