This is the first in a two-part series based on Hutchinson's latest book, Kamala! (Middle Passage Press)
In October 2020, Democratic vice-presidential nominee Kamala Harris' faced off in a debate against then Vice President Mike Pence. But it was more than just a pro-forma candidate debate against a pro-forma rival in Pence that Harris had to contend with.
She also faced the nagging, infuriating and seemingly unshakable stereotype of the "angry Black woman." Harris almost certainly heard it over and over in her debate preparation for Pence. Be nice, courteous, smile a lot, don't interrupt and, most importantly, don't show any flashes of anger. After all, the debate was not solely about one upping one another on the big-ticket policy issues, but the optics.
Harris was forced to walk a precarious tightrope for two crucial reasons. First, Biden would be seventy-eight on inauguration day in January 2021 if he won. Harris' final task was to assure voters that if there was an age or health challenge or Biden elected to serve only one term, she had the experience and political savvy to quickly take the wheel of governing.
Strong, tough, decisive and, yes, aggressive, were the exact qualities that voters and millions of Americans demanded in their leaders. There was a world of difference, though, between that and raw, emotional anger. A man might get away with that and still be lauded as forceful and fiery. But in a woman, this was often seen as negative. Women were simply dismissed as overwrought, emotional, and unsteady.
It was silly, revolting and blatantly unfair. But in the high stakes game of a presidential race, with the would-be vice president who could well be the President under an even more harsh looking glass than ever before, Harris undoubtedly felt the heat.
The other reason was the narrative that Trump created about Harris. The instant Biden announced that she was his VP running mate pick, the president started in. She was "mad," "nasty," vicious," and "disrespectful ." But most of all, "angry."
The morning after the debate, the President called Harris a "monster" on Fox Business.
It was as if Trump was reading hard the minds of many who were prone to swallow whole the hackneyed stereotype of Black women as hard, tough, and always unfeminine - supposedly unlike White women. It was the perfect excuse for some to reject out-of-hand the pick of a presidential candidate who had the temerity to choose a Black woman as his running mate; one heartbeat from the Oval Office.
Now fast forward to 2024, the GOP and Trump has loaded up. It's orchestrating a vicious, hate filled, smear campaign against Harris that dredged up every stereotype about women of color within the political arena. One study in 2021 of the pervasiveness of the gendered abuse of women candidates analyzed depictions of thirteen women on six social media platforms. It cited a staggering over three hundred thousand pieces of abusive content shared by nearly two hundred thousand users during a two-month period about women candidates and elected officials.
Not surprisingly, Harris was the prime target in most of the hit attacks-- nearly eighty percent. The analysts confirmed that the attacks against her did not start the moment she became the vice-president. As the study noted, "Unfortunately, Harris has been targeted with these as long as she's been in politics. These narratives exist and they are being used in a coordinated way to undermine the idea that she is fit for office."
However, much of the assault ultimately came back to race. A perennial favorite was the slur that a Black who smashes through a glass ceiling in business, education, or the top professions did it not on their talent, hard work, and consummate professionalism but because of racial preference. The label early on was they were an "affirmative action hire or promotion." That was upgraded to the more fashionable DEI hire or promotion. DEI was the shorthand for diversity, equity, and inclusion. Harris was quickly tagged with that label in GOP attack circles. Trump led the charge. He even repeated it at of all places the annual confab of the National Association of Black Journalists in July 2024. Unfazed by the hisses and boos from the audience, he called Harris a "DEI candidate."
The GOP slanderers kicked their DEI hit on Harris into high gear the moment Biden announced his exit from the presidential race and endorsement of Harris as his replacement. Nearly ten percent of the criticism of Harris on the social media platform X took pot shots at her as a DEI hire or candidate.
GOP operatives weren't the only ones who repeated the slur. Some well-heeled Democrats also repeated the lie. Some grumbled that there should be an open convention to pick a suitable contender. A handful of major donors even said they wouldn't donate to the Harris presidential campaign.
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