Kamala Harris’s resounding defeat affirmed the worst of what many Black women believed about their country, even as some looked to the future with a wary determination.
Black women could see the mountaintop.
Across the country, they led an outpouring of Democratic elation when the vice president took over the top of the presidential ticket. But underneath their hope and determination was a persistent worry: Was America ready, they asked, to elect a Black woman?
The painful answer arrived this week.
It affirmed the worst of what many Black women believed about their country: that it would rather choose a man who was convicted of 34 felonies, has spewed lies and falsehoods, disparaged women and people of color, and pledged to use the powers of the federal government to punish his political opponents than send a woman of color to the White House.
Sure, but racism and sexism aren’t just white people problems. For example, I’m assuming the repeated efforts to reach out to black men in the last month were reactions to what internal polling was telling them. There are lots of people who’d vote for any man over any woman.
Everyone also seems to be looking for the one and only reason Harris lost. There isn’t one reason. I’m sure racism and misogyny are reasons, even if they’re not the only ones.