Vice President Kamala Harris misplaced her marketing campaign for president in a single day, breaking the hearts of many, together with my spouse Caron and four-year-old daughter Cross, who’ve each fiercely advocated for her victory from the start. They’re gutted, their spirits are down; my spirit is down. America’s determination is nauseating. However we’re nonetheless America. We’re nonetheless right here, and the struggle for freedom should go on. We should push ahead.
To be utterly sincere, seeing a person who’s proudly towards girls having the suitable to decide on what to do with their very own our bodies in 2024 win a nationwide election is past devastating. It proves that our nation has little interest in loving girls. To suppose, girls in America are CEOs, high physicians at elite medical establishments, judges, mechanics, bodybuilders and astronauts –– girls delivery us, they increase us and have proved they’ve the facility to do something a person can do. That they nonetheless cannot declare the title of president is past me. The one phrase that involves thoughts is gloomy.
Whereas I watch my spouse and daughter course of the outcomes, I damage for them. I’m reminded of what the importance of getting a Black lady declare her seat within the White Home would have meant for them. What it will have meant to me. As a result of I’ll admit, I did not at all times perceive the facility of symbolism.
As a boy born within the Nineteen Eighties, I wasn’t taught to concentrate to the chokehold that the patriarchy has on girls. We boys had been taught to exist as males and defend that, to carry onto the concept that we’re leaders and authority figures, even when we did not earn it. Questions on {qualifications} didn’t even cross our minds.
And whilst we grew up and a few of us started figuring out pretty much as good guys, we in all probability nonetheless talked over girls or questioned the issues we realized from them — handled them in methods we simply wouldn’t a person. There is a good likelihood our positions at work might have been given to extra certified girls. However this stuff don’t cross our minds as a result of they don’t need to. I started studying concerning the function gender performs in my place in society in highschool. Trump is in his 70s and he nonetheless does not get it, however he will get to be president — if privilege had been an individual, he’d be it.
Whereas I watch my spouse and daughter course of the outcomes, I damage for them. I’m reminded of what the importance of getting a Black lady declare her seat within the White Home would have meant for them.
As I’ve grown, I’ve been actively working to unlearn this inherited habits. It wasn’t till I settled down with my spouse Caron and commenced to construct a house that I noticed the issue was worse than I imagined. Watching Caron navigate her career opened my eyes to how the patriarchy can have an effect on a lady on daily basis of her life.
Like Harris, Caron is a lawyer, HBCU graduate and Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority sister. She has been speaking about what was on the opposite facet of that cup ceiling for the reason that day the vice chairman introduced her candidacy. Like Harris, Caron has led organizations, directed massive staffs and earned her approach to the highest, however her accomplishments haven’t been acknowledged in the identical methods a person’s would. It’s a actuality she shares with many ladies — at all times being known as to resolve the issue and barely getting credit score after she does.
Harris represented the thought of overcoming all of that, and I pray we do not lose that feeling. Seeing Caron’s enthusiasm for Harris trickling all the way down to our four-year-old daughter, Cross, was magic. All through the marketing campaign season, Cross marched round the home, saying, “Don Trumpet is a foul boy. He’ll lose. Comma-la will win, win, win!”
The primary time we heard our daughter’s anti-Trump rant earlier within the yr, across the time VP Harris grew to become the presumptive nominee, we laughed, not realizing the place it got here from. Perhaps her feisty grandmas on each side, who had been additionally anticipating this present day, taught her that. As November 5 approached, Cross’ convictions grew stronger.
“Donald Trumpet is a nasty man, he’s trashy,” Cross screamed in her candy little voice. “Comma-la will win!”
And now we have now to take a seat her down and inform her that America selected an individual who’s anti-woman. What hurts extra is that I hear males — so-called progressives — champion girls on daily basis whereas doing nothing significant to assist propel them by means of sexist areas. Male leaders from each demographic discuss concerning the energy of girls, however do they maintain house for them? They champion girls in management as an thought, however what do they do to make it a actuality? I noticed Black and Brown males, from my very own neighborhood, who had been raised by their single moms and single grandmas, scream for “ Trump!” I don’t get it. Are they delusional, or do they hate girls, or each?
This loss is much more private for me, contemplating the battles I watched many ladies in my life tackle.
As a young person, I watched my mom, a proficient phlebotomist, be robbed of promotions at Johns Hopkins Hospital the place she labored for 20 years. She was usually liable for coaching the one that can be supervising her. I watched my grandma run our household stuffed with dysfunctional males who had been utterly misplaced after she died. Whereas alive, she was by no means acknowledged for her management. They each needed to discover a approach to survive in Trump’s America. Sadly, we’re nonetheless there. What’s much more unhappy is that I used to be not stunned.
What hurts extra is that I hear males — so-called progressives — champion girls on daily basis whereas doing nothing significant to assist propel them by means of sexist areas.
All through this whole marketing campaign, Caron and Cross remained past assured. The 2 had been delicate like bombs each time they witnessed anybody displaying the slightest little bit of uncertainty. I could not assist being skeptical, although, as a result of I keep in mind in 2016, considering Hillary Clinton was going to have this second. Her ability set says she ought to have gained, however America has a historical past of getting it mistaken. In 2016, we obtained it very mistaken. So sure, I used to be terrified.
I used to be terrified as a result of America has a manner of ignoring blatant racism. As if Trump by no means took out that advert advocating for the Central Park 5 to be executed; as if he hasn’t flirted with Nazi-style imagery and references; as if he by no means stated there have been good individuals on each side in Charlottesville though one facet united to have fun and reward hate; as if he by no means known as international locations that had been stuffed with proud individuals of shade sh**holes. I used to be terrified.
The low morale of Democrats whereas Biden ran for reelection was haunting. There was no vitality, little celeb motion, few marketing campaign indicators and cheeky bumper stickers. It felt like we weren’t in election season and that was terrifying. Political conversations in my buddy teams, that are stuffed with hard-working individuals who care concerning the progress of this nation, ended with nothing greater than shrugs about voting for Biden once more. Nobody was providing to host a marketing campaign dinner, nobody was rocking a Biden hoodie, and positively nobody was sending out emails or knocking on any doorways.
However good individuals know pleasure wins elections. And Trump had all the pleasure till the Kamala impact.
It was telling when Harris introduced her candidacy and a set of blue and white marketing campaign indicators flooded each liberal district, seemingly in a single day. She delivered a style of that 2008 Obama feeling—hope. An countless quantity of hope. I matched my spouse and daughter on vitality and acquired in.
When Obama was elected, I used to be naive about political energy. I believed that his election would erase racism and power oppressors to see the errors of their methods. I foolishly thought his acceptance meant we had been all being accepted, however that would not have been farther from the reality. The nation accepted him, however not us. He was particular. We had been precisely the identical. He skilled a revolution in his own residence, life and legacy that we have fun from the identical locations of uncertainty the place we stay.
That’s the sensation I walked away with as a person. I can solely think about how Black girls, who need to cope with double oppression, felt.
I can solely think about how Black girls, who need to cope with double oppression, felt.
I used to be equally naive after Trump’s first time period, considering his presidency would trigger our nation to break down. Although his mismanagement of COVID and hateful, divisive rhetoric left us eternally scarred, we’re nonetheless right here. We made it. Hopefully, my spouse and I can present our daughter that she’s going to make it to.
Eight years of President Obama and 4 years of Trump have taught me that the objectives I anticipated from my chief needed to be real looking, not some dreamy left-wing utopia stuffed with reparations, and common freedom or prompt destruction, because of chaotic racism.
No chief will ever be too unhealthy or too good. The one factor assured is that we have now to point out up and struggle. We are going to rally, we are going to vote and we are going to proceed to champion girls as a household.
I do not need to lose this particular second by turning into misplaced within the actuality of surviving Trump. Kamala Harris was elected Vice President. That’s proof we’re transferring in the suitable path, whilst we put together to navigate this setback.
Her journey and management will proceed to encourage my household as we put together for no matter is subsequent. And till we determine what that’s, we might be preventing — for you, for us and for America.
Learn extra
about 2024 elections