Contributor

Camille Alexander, PhD

Tuskegee University

Camille S. Alexander earned a PhD in English at the University of Kent where her research focused on Caribbean female migratory literature. Dr. Alexander’s research interests include Caribbean studies and literature; Black British literature; film; African American literature, and third-wave feminism. She recently guest edited an issue of Caribbean Quarterly (Nov. 2021), and her work was published in The Journal of Popular Culture (2019), The International Journal of James Bond Studies (2020), Woke Cinderella: 21st-Century Adaptations (2020), and Voodoo, Hoodoo and Conjure in African-American Literature: Critical Essays (2019). Dr. Alexander is an Assistant Professor of Literature at Tuskegee University.

Ladies First? Vice President Kamala Harris, Black Women, and Social Responsibility

09 October 2024

Political Science

There are some days when contemporary music simply will not do, and a woman of a certain age must peruse the hallowed halls of YouTube to find just the right song. Earlier this week, I decided to pull up Queen Latifah’s “Ladies First” video. At first, as I was at work sitting at my desk attempting to actually work, I tried to relegate the Queen to background noise. However, any Gen Xer knows that, like Baby in Dirty Dancing, Queen Latifah simply cannot be pushed into a corner—even if only a corner of one’s mind. I had to stop everything and focus on the video and the lyrics. I sat mesmerized by this old-school, hip-hop joint, trying to remember where I was and what I was doing when it dropped. I also wondered whether, as I was young and dumb at the time, I actually caught the nuances of Queen Latifah’s message—ladies first.

As the Queen knocked little, male figurines from a world map, I tried to imagine what the world would be like if ladies ran it. Would we, like the male images flashing across the screen, perpetuate violence, anger, and hate? Could we, if given the chance, change the world? As pessimistic as I am, I allowed my mind to wander into this realm of possibility in which women not only ran this planet but did a better job of it than our male counterparts. Before I indulge in revealing my political fantasy, let me address the elephant in the room. Women have historically been prevented from attaining certain levels of success. Kevin Stainback et al, citing Joan Acker’s research, observes “that organizations themselves are gendered, reflecting and reproducing male advantage.” How can women even dream to achieve the same levels of success that men have enjoyed for centuries when the very foundations of those organizations display a fundamental gender bias?

Today, as the US presidential election rages in the background of every news program, social media post, and sound bite, the country is inundated with the possibility of a woman becoming president but not because she is simply the better candidate. For VP Harris to even have the possibility of becoming the US President, every man around her had to fall short, which is a subject that I will delve into more later. What is clear is that, given the current political situation in the US, I may get an opportunity to envision the idea of a woman—a woman of color no less—having the opportunity to change the course of history with the possibility of Vice President Kamala Harris becoming President Harris. While I am proud of VP Harris’s meteoric rise in the Democratic Party and the nation, the foundation for her possible presidency was laid in the early part of this century.

Years ago, when Barack Obama was president of the US and all seemed right with the world, I still could not achieve an emotional nirvana from the election of a Black intellectual to the US presidency although I greatly admired President Obama. After all, he was cool, calm, dedicated, brilliant, and, most importantly, a Black intellectual. However, in my alternative universe where all was well, there would be another President Obama, except her first name would be Michelle. She would be a strong sister, not only ratifying the Kyoto Protocol on her first day in office, but ending, as a friend of mine said, “this fucking war.” She would wisely decide that US troops do more service to the world when they function as peace-keeping forces rather than by reinforcing the nation’s military industrial complex. Instead of deploying more troops, taken predominantly from low socio-economic populations and exported to the Middle East, Mrs. President would call for an immediate cease fire and send her new Secretary of State, Lani Guinier, to begin negotiating with Al-Qaeda. Mrs. Secretary, who would bring her experience as a wife and mother to her job, could give the infantilized males of Al-Qaeda the same options she gave her two-year-old child: stop the foolishness or else. Mrs. President would also institute a service-to-nation policy in which every American would be given an opportunity to defer college expenses by giving back to their country. This could be in the form of community service, including, although not exclusively limited to, community organizing, military service, teaching, medicine, dentistry, or mental health support.

This was my fantasy almost 20 years ago, but I have aged—mind, body, and spirit—since then and lost some of my ability to fantasize a better world than the one in which I live. Now, I see a woman of color with a real opportunity to be the US’s top administrator, but I wonder if she will actually be allowed to do just that if she wins. The Obama Administration taught dreamers like me one important lesson: no one can fight The System and win—at least not in a straightforward manner. Any Black philosopher who remembers the rules of The Game knows that “The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.” Observations of the machinations that were enacted to impede the Biden Administration reinforced this notion. For example, President Biden has attempted to provide federal student aid debt relief repeatedly during his administration. However, he was thwarted at every turn. Years after his election, those with student debt still carry that debt on their credit reports regardless of their contributions to American society and new lawsuits are being filed to prevent any type of student debt relief. Access to healthcare under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), while arguably much improved during the Obama Administration, has suffered some access limitations and increases in spending. The implementation of the work or school requirement, for example, could leave a significant number of people without coverage while the “skinny” option could place some insured serious financial straits with high deductibles. Also, in an interesting twist of fate, lawsuits were filed to prevent Ivy League institutions from showing minorities any preferential treatment in the admissions process. The Supreme Court, in response to these suits, dismantled Affirmative Action initiatives. While this has harmed many Black/African American students who were often denied entry into Ivy League schools anyway, it has also impacted other minorities, particularly Asians. Add to this list the ban on DEI initiatives nationwide, which means that even teachers in classrooms across the US hesitate to teach historical facts for fear they will lose their jobs. All of the wonderful ideas meant to help people, which were proposed by well-intentioned men and women, have either been completely undone or diluted to the point that they lack the efficacy necessary to affect any real change in and on American society. This is the situation that VP Harris will inherit if she becomes President. If Presidents Obama and Biden could do little to improve America’s social ills and they each had the benefit of a Y chromosome, what can Harris do as a woman who is also Black, Indian, and the child of immigrants? In short, she is someone who, on her first day in office, will inherit the standard issues that all US presidents do as well as the added burden of misogynoir, that portmanteau referring “to the anti-Black forms of misogyny that Black women experience.” If the idea of Harris experiencing misogynoir as US President seems a bit farfetched, let us not forget that she has already been on the receiving end of this particular phenomenon years ago. During the 2020 US Presidential election, the slogan “Joe and the Hoe” could be heard at certain political rallies on the lips of a certain segment of the US population. I doubt that they have changed their tune in the intervening four years.

What this country is seeing now, in VP Harris’s candidacy, is a faux attempt at putting ladies first but only because there is no one else left on the Democratic side of the aisle who is capable of righting this sinking ship of a nation. If this concept is hard to believe, let us look back to 2016 when Hillary Clinton ran against Donald Trump and lost her bid. The country was doing so well after eight years of President Obama that voters, perhaps, had difficulty considering a woman as a viable candidate. Today, in 2024, the Democratic Party has no other option but VP Harris. There is a simple equation leading to a mixed-race Black woman becoming the Democratic candidate for President of the US. President Biden did poorly in one debate against Donald Trump. That was all it took for the Democratic Party to tap VP Harris to take his place, or was it? In a survey conducted between May 10-22, 2024, with a racially diverse sample of 2089 subjects under 40 years of age, President Biden garnered a mere one-third support, leading former President Trump by only two points. These results indicate that the same population that supported President Biden in 2020 did not guarantee the same show of support in 2024. While at first glance it may appear that President Biden’s poor showing at the debate lead to his loss of support among Democratic Party powerbrokers, the truth is likely more statistical. If President Biden did not stand a higher chance of winning the election, there was no need for the Party machine to support him.

The tapping of VP Harris to assume the mantle was another real-world example of activating the Strong Black Woman (SBW) schema. The SBW is a term that has become more widespread in the last twenty years as awareness of this trend has grown. SBW is a term applied to a phenomenon seen in Black women in which there are “an exclusive set of cognitive and behavioral expectations for African American women.” Typically, the behavior attached to the SBW schema involves “standing up for oneself, exhibiting self-reliance, and taking care of others.” What is fascinating is that VP Harris is expected, in less than 100 days, to formulate solutions to “fix” the mess that every man involved in this process made prior to her inclusion. As the SBW, VP Harris is not allowed to falter in any way. During her debate with former President Trump, VP Harris was expected to stand at her podium and smile pleasantly as he made derogatory remarks about her. VP Harris cannot afford to go lower when former President Trump goes low. To show a human response would be antithetical to the SBW schema, which dictates that Black women maintain their cool, as a sign of their strength, even when it seems impossible to do so. Again, the woman of color is cast as the Superwoman, and while women of color might indeed be outstanding, VP Harris’s presidential candidacy seems more like her hand is being forced to save the nation when the Powers That Be feel like everything is falling apart, and she is the only solution. The discerning mind might conclude that it would be more expedient to let intellectual women run a few things and do so well to begin with rather that expecting us to don our capes after the fallout.

As I watched Queen Latifah rap “Ladies First,” all of these thoughts about the US and its socio-economic and political situation in the past 20 years ran through my mind. This country is, in short, a hot mess of failed attempts at social responsibility and political expediency. It’s dead last in everything except low educational standards, homelessness, untreated mental illnesses, economic inequity, and everyone’s favorite vice, racism. How is VP Harris, if she becomes President Harris, supposed to mitigate every, last one of these issues—particularly when she will inherit a legislative branch that may not be amenable to her tenure in the White House? She will also inherit 333 million citizens who she will have to govern, knowing that some of the 219 million people who inhabit this nation but do not look like her may well be against her. Yet, fully aware of the situation that she was walking into, when asked to serve her country—a country that failed to elect her years ago—she said “Yes,” taking up the mantle of leadership and committing herself to saving the sinking ship. Now, the U.S. has become a Black woman’s burden and responsibility to single-handedly rescue. All that I can say, if I could speak to VP Harris is this: Good luck, Madam VP. If you become the President of the U.S., you will certainly need it.

“Ladies First,” featuring Monie Love, is from Queen Latifah’s debut album, All Hail the Queen (Tommy Boy, 1989).

Kevin Stainback, “Women in Power: Undoing or Redoing Gendered Organizations?” Gender and Society 30, no. 1, 2016, 110.

Audre Lorde, “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House,” Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (Berkeley: Crossing Press, 2007): 110.

Nate Raymond, “Republican-led US States Sue over New Biden Student Debt Relief Plan,” Reuters, 3 Sept. 2024, https://www.reuters.com/legal/republican-led-us-states-sue-over-new-biden-student-debt-relief-plan-2024-09-03/

Selena Simmons-Duffin, “Trump Is Trying Hard to Thwart Obamacare. How's That Going?,” NPR, 14 Oct. 2019, https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/10/14/768731628/trump-is-trying-hard-to-thwart-obamacare-hows-that-going

Nina Totenberg, “Supreme Court Guts Affirmative Action, Effectively Ending Race-Conscious Admissions,” NPR, 29 June 2023, https://www.npr.org/2023/06/29/1181138066/affirmative-action-supreme-court-decision

David A. Leib, “A Conservative Quest to Limit Diversity Programs Gains Momentum in States,” AP, 24 April 2024, https://apnews.com/article/diversity-equity-inclusion-higher-education-597b65d8f06062cff60b2e185281870a

Joseph Kwarteng et al, “Misogynoir: Challenges in Detecting Intersectional Hate,” Social Network Analysis and Mining 12, no. 166, 2022, 165.

Moya Bailey, Misogynoir Transformed: Black Women’s Digital Resistance (New York: NYU Press, 2021): 35.

Elena Moore, “After backing him in 2020, a new poll shows some young voters are Biden's to lose,” NPR, 5 June 2024, https://www.npr.org/2024/06/05/nx-s1-4987296/young-voters-biden-gaza-inflation-abortion-trump-genforward-poll

Natalie N. Watson and Carla D. Hunter, “‘I Had to Be Strong’: Tensions in the Strong Black Woman Schema,” Journal of Black Psychology 42, no. 5, 2016, 425.

Watson and Hunter, “I Had to Be Strong,” 425.