Following the media coverage of Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, I’ve noticed moments when the mainstream press doesn’t see, or worse, misinterprets what I see as a Black woman and a scholar of Black women as cultural actors. As a public service, I am sharing some of my observations with you.
The media cannot show every moment, so they choose what to depict. Supporters and opposition then choose what to repeat and expand. Media and audiences tend to put candidates into frames we already know, even if they don’t quite fit. From the first week of her campaign for the president of the United States, the coverage of Kamala Harris began to struggle.
The reason that the press is having such trouble framing Harris is because she won’t stay still. She seems to embody what they see as contradictions—fierce and funny; warm and tough, joyful and defiant, pretty and smart. Black women’s lives and leadership styles often reconcile these apparent contradictions. Black female teachers were found to be “warm demanders,” who will get you told and hug you within seconds of each other. The reactions to us can be just as contradictory.
Nurturant and Fierce
Black women are different-–we vote more, yes, and are more highly educated, start more businesses, buy more books, and give away a higher percentage of our incomes than any other demographic. Black and White cultures expect us to move with a unique emotional range among American men or women—from joy to “say it to my face” fighting words within minutes. I am not saying that Black women are the only fierce women, but we appear to be the only ones who are expected to be both fierce and nurturant. The culture is also accustomed to seeing Black women as figures of rescue and transformation. The larger culture is also accustomed to coopting the strength underneath the laughter.
(Read more in my book, Fierce Angels)
Some are small moments, such as Harris’s first public appearance as a presidential candidate on July 22, at an event for NCAA student athlete champions. She was followed by a young Black woman, Florida State University soccer star Jordynn Dudley, who began to speak, tentatively, nervously. Supportively, quietly but audibly, Harris told the young woman to “take your time.” In Black culture, the phrase means more than the literal words. It means, “We are here with you, for you. We will wait for you.” She is more overtly emotional than Hillary Clinton was allowed to be. A photo of her meeting the mayor of Milwaukee and his family depicts her leaning to cup the face of his young daughter.
The Look
August 7 in Detroit, Vice President Harris looked out over the crowd as approximately six pro-Palestinian protestors interrupted her speech at the airplane hangar.
First, she acknowledged that protest is a part of democracy and said that she was speaking, a phrase that she has used successfully before, most notably in debate with Mike Pence. Linguistic research shows what many women know, that we are often interrupted and her retort to Pence had gone viral. The protestors continued to chant. She said that if they wanted her opponent to win, they should “do that. Otherwise, I’m speaking.” And then she made the little Black girl inside of me shudder inside. She went silent and looked out directly at the protestors and leveled The Look.
My Mama raised three children without raising her voice (true). She didn’t need to, because she had The Look. If you acted out in public, she would just turn and give you a Look that instantly stilled you. As a Black mother I found that I had somehow inherited the Look. My daughter is tall and pretty; when she was young, men constantly misjudged her age. I discovered I could make leering men snap back in fear and bow their heads with one Look. One sad man even apologized.
See for the Vice President’s Look for yourself, after “otherwise I’m speaking.”
The Divine Nine
When her Blackness was challenged, the media often mentioned that Harris had pledged Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., a Black sorority. If your idea of sororities has been gleaned from boozy mainstream movies, it is the opposite of that. They are usually categorized as service organizations because that is the central focus. In Black Greek life, parties are secondary; serious service is the primary focus. There is nothing casual. You pledge for life, and it is easy to find folks for whom their fraternity or sorority is the central focus of their adult identity and social lives. The requirements for membership are necessarily elite: a college education, a certain grade level and demonstration of leadership potential. By design, The Divine Nine were the embodiment of what W.E.B. Dubois called the “Talented Tenth,” by which he meant to identify the most talented candidates and pour resources into them toward racial achievement. The Divine Nine are playfully competitive but it is also common to organize together for a common cause. Formerly mostly secret societies, they are now stepping into the public arena as never before. If you don’t know of them, it may be difficult to imagine the intelligence, the emotions, the strength, or the commitment that has already been mobilized.
(Truth in journalism: I am also an AKA, and so are many women in my family. My father was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, the brother fraternity. That family pattern is common. On the Today Show, cohost Sheinelle Jones recently shared photos of four generations of AKA’s in her family who attended the national conference.)
Fear of Black Excellence
The word “fear” is bouncing around in her coverage. It’s not just about the potential of losing an election to her. Black excellence is disruptive. Fear of Black women is even more so. If you are a Black woman and have been in a position where Black people have not been before, you’ve probably seen it. Your mere presence in the space is disruptive. I was in a job where the top four people were Black, three of us women, and I saw the surprise when we walked into the room together. Sometimes, people were delighted but more often they were not. It wasn’t the first time, and it hasn’t been the last. Even self-defined progressives have been rattled. I usually just wait for them to settle themselves, but sometimes they don’t settle. If you are successful enough, it can become a begrudging respect.
On August 13, Kellyanne Conway was angry and fearful at the same time when she mocked on Hannity: “She is so good looking and smart and wealthy and funny and close to her mother and goes on really cool vacations and will never break your heart.” HuffPost described the scene with the headline: Kellyanne Conway’s Dig at Kamala Harris Goes Left After She Fires Off…Compliments.”
It can also become a point of danger because some will start to undermine you in a desperate attempt to restore their facade of white superiority. And if they’re throwing everything they’ve got at you and you’re still killing it? That really rattles. After my daughter rose very high in the national equestrian Eventing rankings, I routinely had to quickly recalibrate her scores and run to protest because some folks suddenly forgot how to add. Too many times to count, I’ve seen folks expose their fearful, racist selves by acting so erratically that they start lashing out with anything they can get their hands on, even if it doesn’t make sense or is demonstrably a lie. Like crowd sizes.
