Not All Black and South Asian American Women Are Rooting for Kamala Harris: We Are Not a Monolith

Many folks have decided all Black and brown women must support Kamala Harris for President. Yet here's the thing: Genocide led by a Black and brown woman rather than a white man is STILL genocide.

We are a Black woman and a South Asian woman. We are mothers, wives, sisters, friends, neighbors, colleagues.

We are Americans.

We care deeply about what’s happening – violent fascism – in this country. We care deeply about how American imperialism, as always, is rearing its violent head abroad. We are horrified our tax dollars are being spent to murder Black and brown folks in America and to behead Palestinian babies in Gaza.

And now many of you – Black, South Asian and white – have decided WE must de facto support Kamala Harris, a Black and South Asian woman, for President.
  

As leaders within Here4TheKids, we are working to abolish all that harms us to attain collective liberation . . . all through solidarity.

So, what harms us? What’s standing in the way of collective freedom?

A LOT.

Guns, climate catastrophe, police, poverty, hunger, houselessness, lack of healthcare, lack of education, GENOCIDE. Since October 7, we have witnessed how our government, led by Joe Biden, has sent MANY billions of dollars and shipment after shipment of weapons to Israel so that it can enact its ongoing genocide of Palestinians. Let’s be clear: this is every bit as much of America’s genocide as it is Israel’s. 

The vast majority of Americans are absolutely not on board for this, not wanting our tax dollars to go to starving and mutilating Palestinians, targeting children and babies.

What has Biden done in the face of MILLIONS of Americans boycotting, marching, protesting, DEMANDING an end? What has Biden done in the face of ICJ rulings AGAINST Israel?

He’s defied us.
He’s defied the will of the American people.
He’s defied international law.

Some facts and figures . . .

60% of Americans (jumps to 75% when you look at Democrats) have wanted a ceasefire since December 2023. Despite PR-move “pauses”, the U.S. under Biden, has approved more than 100 arms sales to Israel since October — including two large sales that were pushed through without Congressional approval as they were deemed “emergency” shipments. In the face of an ICJ ruling on the case brought by South Africa deeming Israel’s actions in Gaza plausibly genocidal, the U.S. has continued to support the slaughter of anywhere between 250,000 - 450,000 humans, if not more.

What has Joe Biden done?

Sent more weapons.
Sent more money.
Unapologetically declared himself a Zionist.

And who has stood right by his side throughout all of this? 

Vice President Kamala Harris.

The same Kamala Harris who as District Attorney of San Francisco and Attorney General of California targeted, imprisoned and traumatized Black and Latino communities, garnering the nickname “Copala.”

The same Kamala Harris who rushed to Guatemala once VP, pointed to a sea of brown faces and sternly instructed “DO NOT COME TO THE U.S.”

The same Kamala Harris who plans to meet with Benjamin Netanyahu privately in the White House this week.

So on Sunday, July 21, a couple days ago, when Joe Biden made the decision to drop out of the 2024 election and quickly anoint Harris the heir apparent, the text messages started rolling in. Our DMs started blowing up. The invitations to groups of BIWOC for Harris started to appear in our inboxes. 

Surely as women of color you see this as a positive development? 
Surely as Black and South Asian women you see yourself in her? 
Surely you will do all you can to get out the vote for her?

Now seems like a really good time to remind you all that Black women and South Asian women are not monolithic groups.

We do not all see things the same way, we do not share all the same experiences, and as individuals, we all have different relationships to whiteness — some of us embrace it, some of us reject it, most of us are in various stages of both. 

As leaders in an organization that rejects white supremacy, we would like to remind you that in the pyramid of white supremacy, genocide is at the top — it is the crime of all crimes. If you don’t reject genocide, you are actively upholding the MOST white supremacist policy on the planet.

We cannot believe we have to say this, but we do: You cannot support genocide and purport to be anti-white supremacy or anti-racist.

Period.

Kamala Harris has wholeheartedly embraced Israel and America’s genocide of Palestinians.

She. Is. Meeting. Netanyahu. A. War. Criminal. This. Week. At. The. White. House.

This fanfare around Kamala Harris is nothing more than political theater, a distraction to the reality: she is no different than Biden. No different than Obama, than Trump, than G.W. Bush, than Clinton, all of whom presided over mass violence and harm at home and genocide abroad.   

So before you “ping” us asking what we’re doing to support Kamala, before you “hit us up” for a donation, before you call our Black or South Asian-ness into question for not “falling in line,” ask yourself this question: Would you trade places with a Palestinian in Gaza or the West Bank right now? 

If your answer is no, then it means that a) you have privilege that you could be using to fight to free Palestine, which puts us on a path to liberation for all, and b) you should press elected officials, including Kamala, to stop the slaughter rather than dragging those of us who are against the genocide to support people funding genocide.

What a bananas thing to have to spell out, but here we are.

Genocide led by a Black and brown woman rather than a white man is still genocide. 

White supremacy in Black and brownface is still white supremacy. 

Rather than screaming at us, join us in our fight to abolish all that harms us, in our fight for collective liberation, and join our beautiful community. 

As Fannie Lou Hamer famously told the National Women’s Political Caucus in 1971, “Nobody’s free until everybody’s free.”

Get to work.