“Right now, many Black women are feeling exhausted—disappointed, let down, and tired of always being the moral compass for a nation that seems to reject us at every turn. As this country cracks under the weight of cruelty and chaos, we are choosing something different this time. We are stepping back, standing on the sidelines, and prioritizing ourselves. For once, we’re embracing the power of rest, healing, and self-preservation.” — Nikki Free
Atlanta influencer, Nikki Free, generated an AI depiction of a group of Black women sitting atop a high-rise watching buildings burn in the distance while casually sipping coffee next to a draped US flag. This image had a viral moment. According to her (and those who agree), Black women feel disappointed and let down, presumably from the 92% of Black women voters who supported the presidential run of Kamala Harris with the expectation of a win that would save democracy. Although Harris graduated from Howard University and pledged AKA sorority, she hails from the state of California that represents the 5th largest economy in the world, and has a population less than 7% Black, meaning she’s never before had to court the Black community to win any election. This may explain why she thought catering to Black people meant arranging celebrity rallies with Megan Thee Stallion twerking, and promising Black men that she would legalize weed, was a good idea.
I struggle to figure out how voting for a Black woman who expressed and took the following actions was perceived as some sort of win for Black people:
- Wanting to ensure America has the “strongest and most LETHAL fighting force in the world”
- Choosing to cavort with Republican Liz Cheney on the campaign trail
- Honored to accept the endorsement of a war criminal, Dick Cheney
- Catered to corporate overlords and the for-profit war machine of a rapacious capitalist system
- Embraced and rebranded right-wing talking points as her own, such as pledging to be better at border security at the southern border (because the northern one was okay for the moment, since it’s shared with another European settler nation)
- Supported a white supremacist genocide in Palestine
The job of the US President is to ensure the machine of endless war functions. It is to guarantee that the 800+ overseas US military bases stationed around the globe protect the land grabs and resource extractions on behalf of Western corporations—that terrorize mostly Global South countries—continues unabated. It is to represent the face of US imperialism to world leaders, while distracting a domestic citizenry from connecting our growing crises (i.e., food insecurity, increasing unhoused populations, declining literacy rates, unaffordable health care, etc.) to US foreign policy actions. Having a Black woman at the helm of this helps Black people in the US how? Do we really think that the woman who repeatedly bragged about being the “top cop” as Attorney General of CA is a win that, in a nation boasting the largest incarcerated population in the world and disproportionately locks up Black people, would be helpful?
If the country is cracking “under the weight of cruelty and chaos,” doesn’t that mean that we, as Black people, are also doomed? What can be preserved, as the flames the pictured women watch will surely engulf us too? Harris’ campaign exemplified identity politics run amok. She offered representation as pacification to distract from the fact that she initially presented zero policies to improve people’s material condition. It took 55 days for her to list any policy on her website even though she’s been Vice President for almost four years. Prior to that, she served as the District Attorney for the city of San Francisco, Attorney General of California and a US Senator representing that state in Congress. So, it’s safe to say she’s had political experience and ambition for quite some time. Yet, she seemed so unprepared. Under her tenure as VP, police killings of unarmed Black people have increased each year since 2020. 69 militarized cop training facilities are in various stages of construction in 47 states, evincing coordination at a local, state and federal level while she’s been in the White House. An innocent Black man, Marcellus Khalifah Williams, was killed by the State amidst calls for a stay of execution that even the prosecutor and Harris’ Green Party opponent advocated for. Not even for optics’ sake could sister girl be bothered to take a break from courting conservative voters to say anything on his behalf. Yet, some believed she would somehow be good for Black people if she won the presidency.
The ongoing genocide in Palestine has been live streamed for over a year, with full-throated ideological and material support (in the form of US-manufactured weapons) of the current Democratic administration. Amidst this, Harris doubled down on her unyielding support for Israel. If she could watch/listen to Euro-Israeli officials refer to Palestinians, who are indigenous to the land, as “human animals,” and issue calls to “wipe them all out,” when the US empire calls for her to commit similar actions domestically, do we really think Black people would be spared? Or, would she follow the orders of her white masters as the empire crumbles and requires a scapegoat? If she can demonstrate such complete disregard for human life elsewhere in the world, do we not understand that those chickens would come home to roost domestically and land squarely in the Black community?
As diasporic African people in the US, we are starved for representation within the nation that most don’t realize is the head of a global empire. I get it. But, what does it mean that we continue to support charlatans, who look like us, via an electoral process assuming they will take office and uphold explicit, vague or non-existent promises to improve our lives when accessing that office requires conspiring with a Capitalist Racist Society rooted in white supremacy behind the scenes? We need to understand the game so we can better expend our energies advancing those truly fighting for Black liberation versus defending a Black face just because it’s in a prominent place, and makes us feel good. I surmise Black women, such as Nikki Free, want to embrace “the power of rest, healing, and self-preservation,” because in having participated in the passive act of voting for a Black woman their job is done. The issue of Black women in the US having maternal mortality rates more than double the national average, or prison conditions being so inhumane that 12 Black men self-immolated out of desperation to escape, no longer warrants the concern that she, and others like her, never possessed in the first place. They can just sit back and enjoy their ill-gotten coffee—a product of capitalist exploitation of land and workers in the Global South—as the material condition of the masses of Black people in the US only worsens under capitalism no matter who resides in the White House.