The Kamala Harris Vibe Shift

The vibe shift since Sunday’s announcement that Joe Biden was not going to stand for re-election, and his subsequent endorsement of Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee for president has been epic.

There is an energy, especially among younger people, about her candidacy that I’ve not felt before. Mind you, this is all based on vibes because it is still too early for reliable national polling about her, and it will be tough sledding in places like where I’m from, where she is even less popular than Biden. At the same time, we can absolutely acknowledge that Kamala Harris is an imperialist cop who has endorsed the genocide in Gaza alongside Biden. One of the most important things I learned from Patricia Hill Collins is the Black feminist capacity to embrace BOTH/AND realities, rather than remaining stuck in either/or binaries. Here is a great example of this both/and thinking from writer, MacArthur ‘Genius’ Award Winner, and professor of creative writing at Rice University, Kiese Laymon, who says it plain and true:

This is where we are, right now, in this moment between Sunday’s announcement and today, Wednesday. Harris still hasn’t chosen a running mate, which will reveal a lot, but the vibe shift is palpable. I don’t love any politicians, I only care if they can be made to do what is necessary to diminish the hurt from the “worst of white folks” and get us closer to repair.

To me, one of the most significant developments has been the quick response of SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice) to step into this moment. They organized a mass meeting last night, and are doing another one tonight (July 24) at 7pmET to mobilize white women specifically. You can register to attend the online meeting here.

This is the first time in my life that I have witnessed an effort to mobilize white women as a demographic group. This is the vibe shift that we’ve needed, part of what I’ve been calling for, and it’s an important realignment. It means that white women as a collective are racialized in a way that tries to connect that identity to a multiracial coalition. With this, there is no going back to simply shouting about “the women’s vote,” without instantly raising the question, “Which women?” The fact that SURJ is using this viral photo of Angela Peoples, a Black woman at the Women’s March of 2017, calling out the fact that a majority of white women voted for Trump, is signifiant. The choice to use this photo here from SURJ, the leading political group organizing white voters, is nothing less than acknowledgment about the electoral work ahead, and it is engaging with white women.

Of course, the vibe shift could easily evaporate if Harris chooses a Zionist as her running mate, but I have tucked away a tiny little bit of hope that she might be influenced by younger people around her. For example, I like to think that Ella Emhoff, who has reportedly raised close to $8 million for the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund and is Harris’s 24 year old stepdaughter, might influence her. These kinds of connections between those in power, like Harris, and those on the outside, are what Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan point to as one of the underlying mechanisms of Why Civil Resistance Works. According to their vast survey of research on civil resistance, the magic percentage is 3.5%. Once the support for a cause gets to 3.5%, then actual change begins to take place.

Listen, I’m not naïve and to be perfectly honest, I’m not enthusiastic about U.S. electoral politics. It’s still an empire that is fueling a genocide with our tax dollars. It is a nation that routinely kills Black people in their own homes. As many celebrated Kamala Harris, another Black woman, Sonya Massey was shot and killed by police within minutes of them responding to her call about a prowler at her home in Springfield, Illinois. Massey was a descendant of William Donnegan, a shoemaker and “conductor” on the underground railroad who helped people escape slavery. Donnegan was attacked and killed by a white lynch mob in 1908, part of what prompted the creation of the NAACP. After she was shot, Massey was taken to the same hospital where Donnegan died.

I don’t know that Kamala Harris being elected president will do anything to change this reality. In more global terms, I’m not sure we can, as a collective, move her to stop the genocide in Gaza. I do know that if we can do any of that, it will only be through building a truly multiracial coalition, and that’s going to require white women showing up with an understanding that we, ourselves, are racialized and we can use this to move in the direction of liberation.

It isn’t going to be smooth or easy, and a lot of people are going to feel hella uncomfortable, but I think that’s what has to happen to shake us out of our delusions. If nothing else, showing up and figuring out what it means to be white women supporting a Black candidate will be good practice for the future.

No matter who wins in November and what the aftermath of that looks like, we will need more community, more solidarity, more mutual aid and Black women have been through this shit, and worse, before.