On July 21, American President Joe Biden announced the end of his re-election campaign and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the official Democratic nominee for the 2024 presidential race. For the second time, a Black woman will be on America’s presidential ballot in November.
Two days later, Illinois law enforcement released the body-cam footage of Sonya Massey’s murder. Massey, a Black disabled woman was shot in the head by Officer Sean Grayson, after she initially called the police for help. From “Kamala IS brat” to the coconut tree memes, the Democratic party has finally captured the affection of young voters. Yet with Kamala Harris’ induction into American pop culture, Sonya Massey’s death accentuates the country’s mythical protection of Black women.
Soon after the release of President Joe Biden’s official statement – terminating his campaign – Black women mobilised nationally. That Sunday night, the #WinWithBlackWomen network organised a Zoom call to rally supporters around Kamala Harris. Over 40,000 Black women joined the conference call and raised $1.5 million for the new Harris campaign. The network’s founder Jotaka Eaddy noted in a Harper’s Bazaar interview that the Sunday Zoom meetings had been ongoing since 2020.
Black voters, specifically Black women, are the bedrock of the Democratic party. In 2020, led by voting rights activist Stacey Abrams and community organisers, Black women switched the state from red to blue. They secured Biden 16 electorates in a state that hadn’t seen a Democrat win since Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign. Their identities, more so identity politics, are a centre piece in this year’s election.
Arguably though, identity politics has been a centre piece since Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential bid and even further back. As a Vox article described, identity politics is “a very vague phrase, but it generally refers to the discussion of and politicking around issues about one’s, well, identity.” On the liberal and leftist spectrum, identity politics deals a lot with race, gender, and sexual orientation. For the more conservative and right-wing base, identity politics usually revolves around religion, class, and nationalism.
Similar to Barack Obama in 2008, Kamala Harris’ second presidential run has created the perfect quagmire effect of the term again. Harris is of Indian and Jamaican descent and an Oakland, California native, which is the birthplace of the Black Panther Party, a Black nationalist political organisation. Her parents were well-educated and had established careers in academia.
After a brief stint at Vanier College in Montreal, Harris attended the historically Black Howard University in Washington, DC. She is a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, the oldest college sorority for Black women in America. Harris’ opponent is 78-year-old New Yorker Donald Trump. Like most white Americans, he is the descendant of European immigrants. A benefactor of the 80’s “Reaganomics”, he’s been a fixture in American pop culture through various television and film appearances. His most noteworthy performance was on a reality television show titled The Apprentice. Since then, he’s courted Christian and white nationalist movements in his pursuit of political power.
In 2005, British professors Michelle K. Ryan and Alexander Haslam created the term glass cliff. An antonym to the metaphor glass ceiling, the phrase refers to the phenomenon of women only rising to high leadership positions during periods of crisis. In their new positions of power, these women face daunting obstacles that limit their ability to succeed. When they can’t fix problems, these women take responsibility for failures that are not inherently theirs. Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign begins amid a very divided Democratic party and America. Her new amusing social media viral-ability is possibly fleeting when issues like the Israel-Palestine war or her prosecutorial record take centre stage.
Looking at the candidate further, what will Kamala Harris’ new position actually do for Black women? The regular and working-class Black women; Black women who are not privileged with postgraduate degrees, lighter complexions, or looser curls that allow them to navigate institutional racism safely. America’s first Black president was anointed at his inauguration as the start of the country’s post-race era. Only for racial tensions to heighten in America through the state murders of Michael Brown, Atatiana Jefferson, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and many others.
Significantly, Obama was hesitant to tackle an aggressive anti-racist agenda. Situated in a precarious spot courting white voters, a colour-blindness approach to race was much more digestible rather than addressing America’s white supremacist foundations. Nonetheless, what does it say when his wife and former First Lady Michelle Obama admits that Americans weren’t ready to see her hair in braids?
Even Harris’ recent meme-ification is jarring considering American media couldn’t locate her last year. Some pointed out her noticeable lack of presence in the Biden administration, which has yet to be determined as self-imposed. The memes, while funny and seemingly organic, are still a form of media propaganda. Softening the presidential candidate despite her notorious line of questioning on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
What conclusion can be drawn that the biggest asset in a Black woman becoming President is a comedic caricature of her identity? Rather than her extensive and cutthroat career, which her white male colleagues are allowed to run on, and cheered for.