But Kamala Harris Isn’t Black!

And other puerile arguments about Biden’s running mate, and Biden himself

LEVEL recently published an article that tagged some of the early dog-whistles:

This was my highlight from the article:

Her dad was born and raised in Jamaica; her Tamil mother was born in India. She contains multitudes, but is also unmistakably Black. Yet, to conservative “thinkers” like Dinesh D’Souza, she’s trading on an African American experience that isn’t hers. Despite growing up in Oakland. And attending Howard University. You gotta love racial purity tests coming from a guy who said (and this is real), “So Rosa Parks wouldn’t sit in the back of the bus — that’s all she did, so what’s the big fuss?”

I responded to this with:

This is a beaut.

In a world where NONE of us is pure ANYTHING except mutt, with perhaps the exception of some Aboriginal peoples, who the hell is anyone to make any kind of claim or complaint? That we all contain multitudes is part of what makes us one species. But then that’s asking people to think.

That of course got ME trolled by a Black man who, as other Medium writers have pointed out, are having a hard time with Harris. To that, this smart piece:

From Mike Muse’s article:

Black men, let’s establish what we know. As Malcolm X said, the most disrespected, unprotected, neglected person in America is the Black woman. And yes, Harris is Black, so let’s stop with any false narrative that she’s not. Bad actors seeking to create dissent will do a good enough job spreading false propaganda without our assistance. It’s already beginning with the birther movement; the once-silent dog whistles have turned into a blaring sound system used at President Donald Trump’s rallies, White House press briefings, and on the presidential Twitter account. Therefore, we must have her back at all times during this election.

She’s flawed, as he points out. But her Blackness, or lack thereof, or its origin, is not the issue. The issues, and her positions on them, ARE. What she plans to do in her office IS relevant. Not her skin color or her cultural background.

Then there was this, from this morning on my comment:

Kamala Harris Black? We in America and only in America have our own version of what is considered Black or African American. I have lived in a number of states in the U.S. and a few countries of the world to include Africa and it never surprises me how Americans want to define you, In the U.S. you are Black if you have any Black heritage in your background in other countries not so much, that gets us to the word people of color, the word pushed by the American Black community to gather solidarity in turn more numbers for Black issues.

The Black community has very separate issues than the Latino, Asian, Native, HIndu, Islamic and Polynesian community, did I miss anyone.? Was Kamala Harris chosen because of her color? if so that is racist.

I was asked by a Black coworker that the Colombian singer Shakira considers herself White.

Having lived in Colombia and in other countries of South America and the Carribean I told him because she is in her country and Europe for that matter but really why does it matter? I knew the answer because he was like many Black Americans who see color in everything first in foremost, that's just the way he was brought up and probably the way he is raising his kids and the cycle continues

This is my response, and what I feel about Harris (or any other candidate, albeit I am VERY glad she got selected):

While I am not entirely sure of your point(s) there seem to be quite a few of them, and because of that this response both rambles and obfuscates what you perhaps are really trying to say, I would respond to just one piece in order to make one very clear point: We in America are hardly the only country which dictates what is Black. Hardly.

South Africa, for one, under apartheid, is an object lesson in racism of the worst sort, and the belief that single droplet of blood from anyone less than lily White makes them Colored (their term).

They are not alone. So while I might understand-to the extent possible given the lack of clarity about what you’re really trying to say (kindly, that’s not a criticism so much as an opinion, I really didn’t follow your thinking)- I might also point out that these issues are deeply complex. When we mature as a society of humans to recognize that color isn’t the issue- and I will be long long dead if that ever happens- then we might come to the understanding that such shadings in our arguments about race are patently ridiculous.

Just, ridiculous.

I didn’t say or imply, nor should you infer that I am saying you are ridiculous.

I am saying this kind of argument about Harris or anyone else is ridiculous.

In the highest possible sense the only goddamned thing that really, really, really matters is her competence. PERIOD full stop. All this bandying about around her color, her heritage, is pure, unadulterated bullshit.

Can. She. Do. The. Job?

I think she can. To me that is the only thing that matters. Where her color comes from is utterly irrelevant.

I have traveled far too much (47 countries) lived overseas too long and researched enough to reach the point where what I see is human beings. What I hope for is excellence.The package it comes in, Tamil or Polynesian or Black or White or anything is irrelevant. People who spend too much time arguing these points are not only being manipulated by folks who benefit from our arguments about race, religion and gender, but they also waste precious life and time on meaningless issues.

But that’s just me.

You and I have far too much on our plates right now to spend time attacking each other OR Biden/Harris over nonsense. We need to be mature enough to vote the cretins out of office. Other writers far better than I have outlined and underscored all the reasons why. If Covid hasn’t demonstrated that for you, well, you’ve got bigger problems to solve than the shadings of Harris’ color palette.

As to the sexual assaults in Biden’s history?

Look. I don’t like it either. But kindly, you show me ONE man in this world past the age of fifteen who has not done something ugly, inappropriate, demeaning to a woman and I will show you a saint. Saints don’t run for office. We are generations away from that kind of change. GENERATIONS. I am not in any way excusing the behavior. NOT AT ALL.

But we are all of us flawed, we have made terrible mistakes and choices based on societal conditioning (me too), and until we bring up our boys in a fundamentally different way, ALL our male candidates, ALL our male managers and leaders, ALL men in our society are likely to have such history.

It is far easier to castigate people for stupid mistakes and bad behavior which have been sanctioned in the past than to hold all of ourselves responsible for the massive societal change necessary to ensure that future generations don’t have to elect some mugwump who has sexual assaults on his record.

Or hers, for that matter.

As long as power is seductive, as long as power invites abuse, as long as we tolerate how women (and minorities and veterans and the disabled, et.al.) are treated, shitheels will continue to be shitheels (like Trump) and they will seek more power through getting elected. Politics suck. But put three people in a room, you have politics. It comes with being human.

Being a courageous human requires that we understand some of the tradeoffs we have to make, for now, and do our part to bring up better, wiser, more respectful and tolerant kids, for the future.

I am voting Biden/Harris. Because they are far better for now.