What Has Kamala Harris Done for the Black Community?
The answer may surprise you
A QUICK NOTE:
With only weeks left until the November election, I plan to occasionally post short-form updates like this one on issues related to the campaign where timeliness is more important than my customary long-form essays.
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Even though I haven’t worked on Wall Street in over a decade, I still communicate with some of my former colleagues several times a week.
This afternoon, I had a call with a friend from those days who now resides in Hawaii. He was my first hire on the last trading desk I ramped up back in 2006. Over the course of what ended up being an hour-long conversation, he told me about an exchange in a Facebook group he’s a member of consisting exclusively of Black men.
One of the group’s top contributors posted a photo of Kamala Harris’ extended family along with a comment to the effect of, “If you think Kamala will do anything for Black people as president, you’re out of your mind.”
According to my former colleague, the suggestion was that, because Harris’ extended family is multiracial, multi-ethnic, and multi-religious, she will be less of an ally to the African American community should she become president. Moreover, because Harris does not fit the conventional definition of what mainstream society considers “Black,” the suggestion is that she is less a part of the diaspora than those of us whose Blackness is more apparent.
It may surprise some readers to know that, even today, a fair amount of racism based on skin color exists within the Black community. This outdated sentiment is a holdover from the system of enslavement and Jim Crow segregation. I am old enough to remember a time within Black culture when the church one attended—even romantic relationships—hinged on how light or dark-skinned one of us happened to be.
As we have seen in recent weeks, Donald Trump has also attempted to make the question of Kamala Harris’ Blackness an issue. This is not accidental. He is attempting to exploit this centuries-old trope to create a wedge within the Black electorate, among Black men in particular.
Setting aside the obvious racism at play, what is the Harris/Walz agenda for Black Americans? As this video from Keith Boykin, a former White House aide to Bill Clinton illustrates, Vice President Harris already has a strong record of accomplishment as it relates to the Biden administration’s Black agenda.
There is no reason to believe that will change once she becomes president.
