"Republicans seem to have a chronic and seemingly incurable allergy to putting some respect on any Black person’s name," writes author Thembisa Mshaka.
This column is part of HuffPost’s “She the People” series, stories by Black women exploring Kamala Harris’ historic candidacy. To read more, visit our hub .
GOP leaders have a tough time with Black people and respect. From the insistence that former President Barack Obama was not a native-born U.S. citizen to the Republican Party going on the record with 210 of 211 of its congresspeople voting nay on the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act — unsurprisingly, the lone “yes”-voting Republican, Rep. Lance Gooden (R-Texas) later affirmed that his yes vote was accidental — Republicans seem to have a chronic and seemingly incurable allergy to putting some respect on any Black person’s name.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas — whose lack of integrity, marriage to Jan. 6 insurrection accessory Ginni Thomas, and widely documented corruption have recently earned him an articles of impeachment filing from Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) — may be the exception, along with Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), who’s on the home team and called resurrecting the legislation a “nonstarter.”
As we watch America respond with unprecedented enthusiasm around now-official presidential nominee and sitting Vice President Kamala Harris, this context is important. The disrespect hurled at her since President Joe Biden endorsed her as he declined to seek reelection runs deeper than Donald Trump being a proud bigot, criminally liable sexual predator and 34-time convicted felon . VP Harris’ very being is offensive to the vast majority of the GOP.
The offense is not limited to her professional ascension, accomplishments and current stature. It is rooted in her very existence. VPOTUS Harris represents a strident middle finger to the flawed notion that Black people, and specifically Black women, should know and stay in a “place” designated for them by white men in positions of power.
Project 2025 is blatant evidence that women and Black folks, among other segments of the U.S. population, are no longer acceptable as empowered members of American society, and thus, must be put back in that place the GOP remembers fondly. The overturning of Roe v. Wade and the Senate floor death of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act are but two recent GOP wins that gave the party the green light to go full-throttle with the rollback of civil and human rights.
All politics are identity politics. When white conservative Christian men run for office, it’s about 'values'; when Black women run for the highest office in the land, it’s a threat to those values.
A viral snuff film featuring then-Officer Derek Chauvin as the murderous villain putting George Floyd “in his place” and the global protests that followed led then-Sen. Harris to coauthor the Senate version of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. Of course it didn’t make it through the Senate, sending two messages to the world: American police terror is acceptable, and Sen. Harris puts forward zero legislation that the GOP members of Congress are bound to respect.
Fast forward to 2024, and the Black Woman the GOP Loves to Hate has had a tremendously successful term as vice president of the United States. The Biden administration expanded overtime protections , passed legislation to protect communities from gun violence, sought to erase billions in student loan debt, and signed a massive infrastructure bill to rebuild roads and bridges nationwide. It’s clear that Biden-Harris have recovered the country from the brink of insurrection and worked to mitigate the economic harm done by the Trump presidency. Then, in a historic chess move, Biden opted out of reelection and passed the baton to his VP.
Naturally, Trump is coming undone, and his unhinged, nonsensical vitriol goes right along with it. First, he wants a refund for the funds he used to campaign against Biden. Then, he pulls out the sexist playbook and calls Harris’ intelligence into question. He’s been heard calling her a “bitch” on more than one occasion, according to The New York Times .
In a bizarre spew during his conversation at the NABJ convention in July, Trump posited that Harris, a Howard University alumna and member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., suddenly “happened to turn Black.” Trump detractor-turned-running-mate JD Vance piled on, joining the Fox News chorus calling VP Harris a “DEI” hire when she was actually duly elected. (They’ve clearly learned little from losing that $787.5 million disinformation lawsuit .) A barrage of disgusting attacks that are sexual in nature and too foul to repeat have aired on television in reference to Harris from the mouths of anchors, pundits and podcasters. And in the most obvious sign of disrespect, the GOP keeps mispronouncing and butchering her first name when they could simply refer to her as Vice President Harris.
All politics are identity politics. When white conservative Christian men run for office, it’s about “values”; when Black women run for the highest office in the land, it’s a threat to those values — the same values that use Jesus as a shield for banning books, criminalizing migrant workers, exempting corporations from paying taxes, vilifying drag queens and policing women’s wombs.
VP Harris brings her identity to the race for president, and with that comes a determination to advance the rights and protections of women, Black people, marginalized people, incarcerated people, working people, the American people. From Shirley Chisholm and Lenora B. Fulani to Stacey Abrams, Ilhan Omar and Cori Bush, Kamala Harris is part of a long, powerful history of Black women in American politics whose policies aim to make life better for the disenfranchised, and by extension, for all Americans.
“Identity politics” is a phrase used pejoratively when discussing politicians who aren’t straight white men — who practice identity politics just as boldly, with full knowledge of the xenophobia, transphobia, racism and misogyny their policies reflect. Identity politics are only a problem when the face of politics is nonwhite, female, Muslim or LGBTQ+.
The practice isn’t new, and neither is the double standard.
Hopefully, American voters will reject and pink-slip the double standard this November.
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