Is Kamala Harris Conveniently Black?

As the media cheers VP Kamala Harris on as potentially being the first Black female president, many African American voters are unconvinced; they see her Blackness not as an integral part of her identity but a convenient cloak thrown on to get Black votes amid an election season. Why are so many Black voters — specifically African American voters — unwilling to accept Kamala Harris as Black or pledge their vote for her?

Blackness is a Diaspora

“Black” and “African American” are not one and the same, although the terms are often used interchangeably.

A Black person born in America whose generations go back into slavery presumably is African American. As a side note, some African Americans even reject the term “African American” to describe themselves and have settled on American Descendants of Slavery. A Black citizen of Nigeria who becomes an American citizen might identify as “Nigerian-American”. However, they normally wouldn’t identify as African American.

More confusing is, a Black citizen born in Northern Africa, regardless of skin tone, is normally classified as “white” in America. This classification has been debated and can at times seem counterintuitive. The main point is, some people from Africa, the Dominican Republic, the Virgin Islands and other countries might identify as Black, but they are not African American. But if they’re all Black, why does this matter, and what does this have to do with VP Harris?

The Importance of Identity

As all Black people, the story of African Americans is unique and important in its own ways. When Haitians overthrew the French government in 1804, they were fighting for the exact same thing African American people have been fighting for since the inception of America: freedom. This is the same when considering the plight of South Africans amongst Apartheid. So, there is a common thread of fighting against oppression to be free. Still, each of these stories of resistance and resilience is different from the others.

Some African American people are concerned that Kamala Harris isn’t truly familiar or concerned with the plight of African Americans specifically and maybe Black people in general. They sense a disconnect between her past as a criminal prosecutor prosecuting African American men and her call to those same men to elect her.

Kamala Harris is of mixed racial heritage, and she is not African American. This distinction is felt amongst many African American voters, even if they don’t say it. Some African American people do not view racially-mixed Black people as Black. It is important to note that some mixed-raced Black people share this sentiment.

That acknowledged, voters are right to have their concerns, and they should look into VP Harris’s alternative and what is at stake this election season. At least two Supreme Court judges are likely to retire during the next four-year presidential cycle, leaving the sitting president to appoint two new justices. These judges serve for life. So, this election will determine possibly the next 20 — 40 years, two — four generations of laws in this country.

This is alarming when considering the damage the Supreme Court has done recently, the worsening damage it could do going forward and the potential for the extraordinarily authoritarian Conservative agenda Project 2025 to become law. This means that Black voters must choose between a “so-called” Black former prosecutor they don’t trust and a person who will have them eating dinner under the nearest viaduct with their families. I believe, under the circumstances, the former choice will do.

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