While the media and others can go back and forth on Vice President Harris’ Blackness, we must focus on what policies she is laying out to address the issues our community faces.
Electric. The energy was palpable. This was the vibe at the first rally of the presumptive Democratic ticket held in Philadelphia yesterday with Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Waltz of Minnesota. It seems Democrats have assembled a ticket that a cross-section of the Dem coalition can believe in.
The Harris-Waltz campaign has an enormous opportunity to keep this energy and momentum going with a policy platform that centers a Black agenda and the working class, and moves to a humanitarian position on Gaza.
As much as some might not understand this, the Black agenda is the connective tissue for creating a true human rights economy.
In the run up to the 2016 election, someone told me something true: « The hood was the hood under Clinton, the hood was the hood under Bush, the hood is the hood under Obama. No matter who wins, the hood will still be the hood. » Fast forward to 2024, the hood has seen a Donald J. Trump presidency and a Joseph R. Biden presidency, and the hood is still the hood.
People are still struggling to get by, poverty is still ever present, food and health care cost too much. Some progress has been made, but not nearly fast enough. People are hurting.
Last week, former President Trump visited the conference for the National Association of Black Journalists for a sit down interview. He went on to say the following about current Vice President Kamala Harris: « So I’ve known her a long time—indirectly, not directly very much—and she was always of Indian heritage. And she was only promoting Indian heritage. I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago, when she happened to turn Black », Trump said. « And now she wants to be known as Black. So I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black? »
The comment has sparked a dialogue, from the political sphere to the Black community. And in the Black community particularly, this is not the first time the « conversation » regarding V.
