Facing Race: A National Conference in St. Louis, MO — November 20-22, 2024

Charles Kamasaki

Senior Cabinet Advisor | UnidosUS

Charles Kamasaki is Senior Cabinet Advisor of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR). In this capacity he serves as a senior member of the management team (“Cabinet”) at UnidosUS, (formerly the National Council of La Raza), the nation’s largest Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization. Previously the Executive Vice President of NCLR, Kamasaki for two decades managed the group’s research, policy analysis, and advocacy activity. He has authored, co-authored, and supervised the preparation of dozens of policy and research reports, journal articles, and editorials, testified frequently at Congressional and Administrative hearings, coordinated pro bono litigation and legal analysis, and represented the organization at research and policy conferences and symposia. 

 

Since May 2012, Kamasaki has also been a Resident Fellow at the Migration Policy Institute, carrying out research that eventually produced a book, Immigration Reform: The Corpse That Will Not Die (Mandel-Vilar Press, 2019), about the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 and its follow-on bill the Immigration Act of 1990, the last comprehensive immigration reforms enacted into law.

 


Presentations from Facing Race 2020

Forging A Just, Multiracial Democracy Through Cross Racial Movement Building 1

American demographics are changing. By 2050, the U.S. population will become predominantly people of color. Even today, we see the importance of building Dr. King’s “Beloved Community.” Toward this end, the W. K. Kellogg Foundation has brought nine leading national racial justice organizations into community with each other, a cross-racial coalition collectively known as the Racial Equity Anchor Institutions (the “Anchors”). They are: Advancement Project, Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum, Demos, Faith in Action, NAACP, National Congress of American Indians, National Urban League, Race Forward, and UnidosUS. This session will feature the Anchor organization principals discussing the nature and value of their joint work. It will share how they have learned to work together (which hasn’t always been easy or smooth), and the promising ways they are collaborating to ensure a robust, inclusive democracy, leading to the Beloved Community. By creating multi-racial messaging campaigns, the Anchors have advanced an empowering vision of common purpose and destiny. Overcoming the greatest challenges our nation faces depends on such collaboration, healing, learning, and growing together. The Anchors’ joint work has empowered their shared racial equity priorities, while also cultivating stronger multi-racial coalitions at the local level. Session attendees will learn about the benefits of strategic trust building and structured collaboration, key research findings about communities of color, effective strategies for increasing turnout in elections, responding to contested elections and Census participation, and insightful perspectives on how and why to grow multi-racial movements nationally and locally.

Speakers: Juliet Choi, Kevin Allis, Alvin Herring, Charles Kamasaki