This column is part of HuffPost’s “She the People” series, stories by black women about Kamala Harris’ historic nomination. If you want to read more, visit our center.
GOP leaders are having a hard time with black people and respect. On the insistence that former President Barack Obama was not a natural-born citizen of the United States in a record Republican Party effort, when 210 out of 211 members of Congress voted against the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, not surprisingly, the lone “yes”-voted Republican , Rep. Lance Gooden (R-Texas) later confirmed that his yes vote was accidental — Republicans seem to have a chronic and seemingly incurable allergy to putting respect in the name of any black person.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas — whose integrity, Jan. 6 marriage to insurgent Ginni Thomas and widely documented corruption recently earned him an impeachment petition from Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (DN.Y.) — may be an exception, along with Sen. Tim Scott (R.S. with C.), who is on the home team and called revitalizing the legislation a “non-starter.”
As we watch America react with unprecedented enthusiasm around the now official presidential candidate and sitting Vice President Kamala Harris, this context is important. The disrespect directed at him after President Joe Biden endorsed him for refusing to seek re-election runs deeper than Donald Trump being a proud bigot, criminally responsible sexual predator and 34-time. convicted felon. The nature of VP Harris is offensive to most of the GOP.
The crime is not limited to his professional rise, achievements and current position. It stems from his existence. VPOTUS Harris represents a sharp middle finger to the mistaken notion that black people, and especially black women, should know and stay in the “place” assigned to them by white men in positions of power.
Project 2025 is blatant evidence that women and black people, among other segments of the US population, are no longer acceptable as empowered members of American society and must therefore be returned to a place the GOP fondly remembers. The repeal of Roe v. Wade and the death of George Floyd’s Justice in Policing Act in the Senate are just two recent GOP victories that gave the party the green light to go all out on rolling back civil and human rights.
All politics is identity politics. When white conservative Christian men run for office, it’s about “worth”; when black women run for the highest office in the land, it is a threat to those values.
A viral snuff film featuring then-officer Derek Chauvin as a murderous villain puts George Floyd “in his place,” and the ensuing global protests led then-Sen. Harris is co-authoring the Senate version of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. Of course it does did not survive The Senate is sending two messages to the world: America’s police terror is acceptable, and Senator Harris is introducing zero legislation that members of Congress must respect.
Fast forward to 2024, and the Black woman the GOP loves to hate has been very successful as Vice President of the United States. Biden administration extended overtime protection, passed the law to protect communities against gun violence wipe out billions in student loan debt and signed a massive infrastructure bill for renewing roads and bridges nationwide. It is clear that Biden-Harris has recovered from the brink of national revolt and has sought to mitigate the economic harm caused by the Trump presidency. Then, in a historic chess move, Biden declined re-election and passed the baton to his VP.
Naturally, Trump is on a tear, and his mindless, nonsensical vitriol goes with it. First, he wants a return of funds he campaigned against Biden. He then pulls out the sexist playbook and questions Harris’ intelligence. He has been heard calling her a “bitch” more than once, According to The New York Times.
During a debate at the NABJ convention in July, Trump claimed that Harris, a Howard University alumna and member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., “suddenly happened to turn black.” Trump detractor-turned-candidate JD Vance joined the Fox News chorus of calling VP Harris a “DEI” hire when he was duly elected. (They’ve clearly learned a bit about losing it $787.5 million lawsuit for disinformation.) From the mouths of anchors, pundits and podcasters, several disgusting attacks have been presented on television based on Harris, which are sexual in nature and too ugly to repeat. And in the most obvious show of disrespect, the GOP is mispronouncing and butchering his first name when they could simply call him Vice President Harris.
All politics is identity politics. When white conservative Christian men run for office, it’s about “worthiness”; when black women run for the highest office in the land, it’s a threat to those values—the same values that use Jesus as a shield to ban books, criminalize migrant workers, exempt corporations from paying taxes, vilify drag queens, and control women’s wombs.
VP Harris brings her identity to the presidential race, and with it comes a determination to advance the rights and protections of women, blacks, the marginalized, the incarcerated, workers, and Americans. From Shirley Chisholm and Lenora B. Fulani to Stacey Abrams, Ilhan Omar and Cori Bush, Kamala Harris is part of a long and powerful history of black women in American politics, whose politics aim to make life better for the disenfranchised and, by extension, all Americans.
“Identity politics” is a term used pejoratively to refer to politicians who are not straight white men – who engage in identity politics just as boldly, fully aware of the xenophobia, transphobia, racism and misogyny their policies reflect. Identity politics is only a problem when the face of politics is non-white, female, Muslim or LGBTQ+.
The practice is not new, and neither is the double standard.
Hopefully the American voters will reject the double standard this November.
