Kamala Harris, a Black and South Asian American woman, shattered several glass ceilings before reaching this point in her career. She became the first woman of color elected as District Attorney of San Francisco, Attorney General of California, and Vice President. Depending on the election outcome, she may also become the first woman to become president. Yet, Harris’ ascension to the top of the Democratic ticket has inspired a layered debate on race and gender. Her multifaceted identity challenges the white-black narratives that often dominate political discourse.
America’s legacy of racism continues to impact political attitudes, diminishing support for Black candidates, as well as racial minorities. For instance, when Ann Coulter, a conservative political commentator, interviewed Vivek Ramaswamy, she shared that she would never support his campaign for the presidency, telling him face-to-face — it’s “because you’re Indian.” Despite the pair agreeing on policy, his identity became a deal breaker. On top of the straightforward rejection of minority candidates, stereotype endorsement can also dampen support.
Some believe Black candidates are never qualified enough to fulfill leadership roles. According to a national survey, racial resentment and modern sexism have a powerful influence on the characterization of Black women political leaders as angry and aggressive. The findings revealed bias toward Black women leaders persists across the political spectrum, indicating that these attitudes are prevalent among Republicans and Democrats. So, it would be disingenuous to blame every ounce of resistance to Black and minority candidates on ideological differences.
Last month, during the 2024 Presidential Debate, former President Donald Trump doubled down on the claim he’d made in the past that Kamala Harris “happened to turn Black.” While Trump claimed he “doesn’t care” about Harris’ racial identity, he continued to undermine her blackness by emphasizing her mixed-race ancestry. Yet, American history is filled with examples of mixed-race Black people who were enslaved or discriminated against for having Black parentage. The famed abolitionist Fredrick Douglass was born to an enslaved Black mother and a White man, likely an enslaver. And yet, after self-liberating in 1838, his former enslaver, Thomas Auld, tried to recapture him, forcing him to live under the threat of re-enslavement. Even after Douglass successfully purchased his freedom with the help of British supporters in 1846, he continued to face risks of recapture. This was exasperated by the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, legislation that granted federal resources to re-capture freedmen and women.
In another instance, Homère Plessy, a man who was 1/8th Black, became a test case for racial segregation in 1892 when he boarded a whites-only car on the East Louisiana Railroad in New Orleans, intentionally defying Louisiana’s Separate Car Act of 1890. Despite his physical appearance, nearly indistinguishable from a White man, Creole people who had even a drop of Black blood were condemned to second-class citizenry. Segregating society meant that mixed-race people often endured the same brutal rejection as those with two Black parents and four Black grandparents. No historian calls Plessy a White man despite his mixed ancestry because of how the government and his contemporaries treated him. Now, consider that Kamala Harris had to be bussed to school in California, that she attended a Historically Black College, Howard University, and joined Alpha Kappa Alpha, the oldest African American sorority in the country. That she’s experienced racist backlash to her political leadership. It’s not feasible to strip her of her blackness, though many have tried.
Of course, unearthing these examples of the persecution many mixed-race Black Americans experienced doesn’t negate the fact that light-skinned people benefit from a level of privilege deprived of those with darker skin and more pronounced Afro-centric features. Colorism persists, even in the modern era. However, it’s disingenuous to claim someone is not Black simply because both of their parents and grandparents are not Black. We must remember that race is a social construct; ultimately, our experiences are layered. Yet, Trump and others’ efforts to strip Kamala Harris of her blackness expose the irony of such a construct. When blackness is treated as a social disadvantage, our society casts a wide net that captures even those with a single Black relative. And in those rare moments when blackness is treated as a social advantage, such as during an election cycle when a Black candidate is inspiring engagement within the black community, we see that the net used is much smaller, capturing only those darker than a brown paper bag.
There is also resistance to Kamala Harris and other women's political leadership because of her gender. Of course, there has been a lot of denial about the impact of sexism. However, this country has never elected a woman of any race as its president. And no state has ever elected a Black woman as its governor. This month, former President Obama spoke candidly to a group of predominantly Black men at a campaign field office in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, addressing their hesitation in extending their support for Harris. “ You just aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president, and you’re coming up with other alternatives and other reasons for that,” he suggested. While some accused him of scolding or talking down to this group of men, his brief speech struck a nerve with some by addressing sexism within the black community. Obama received pushback from some who argued that since Black men were, more than not, supportive of Kamala Harris, they didn’t need the lecture. Nevertheless, his comments sparked a layered debate on the role gender plays in someone’s willingness to support a politician.
In a viral photo circulated online, one Black man’s shirt read “Trump or The Tramp,” with pictures of the candidates, signaling that at least his resistance was motivated by Harris’ gender, not her race. Implicit in this insult is the assumption that any woman in a position of power “slept her way to the top.” Of course, this characterization overlooks the woman's hard work and intellectual capacity and attempts to stereotype her as overly sexual and transactional — that’s the point, to discredit her. Despite Trump’s laundry list of racist statements and behaviors, there is a minority of Black men who continue to support his candidacy. While this certainly doesn’t apply to most Black registered voters, some refuse to support Harris because she’s a woman. That needs to be acknowledged.
While there are no laws that control the decisions men make about their healthcare, there are currently 13 states where abortion is banned and 12 states considered “hostile” to access, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights. Consequently, women’s rights are on the ballot, and it seems disingenuous to argue that gender has nothing to do with someone’s support for either candidate. In 2021, Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri claimed there was an “attack on men,” ironically ignoring the very real assault on women’s rights. There is an ongoing debate on the role of women in society and whether they should be supported as equals. Whether they should be free to decide about their health and future or acquiesce those rights to the state.
There’s also a presumption that Black candidates will be more liberal ideologically than White candidates and focus solely on the needs of minorities, according to Karl and Ryan's study published in The Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics. This could explain why Kamala Harris, often ranked as a moderate Democrat, has repeated her campaign promise to be “a president for all Americans,” emphasizing her focus on her responsibility to cater to the broader community. Advisors likely warned that people would assume her identity would steer rather than influence her policy positions. Ironically, biases surrounding her identity may ultimately deprive her of an opportunity to lead and break one more glass ceiling.
Win, lose, or draw, Kamala Harris’ rise through the political ranks has inspired a nuanced conversation about race and gender—one that the country desperately needs to engage in, even after the election is decided.
This post originally appeared on Medium and is edited and republished with author's permission. Read more of Allison Gaines' work on Medium.