If you want to understand America’s contradictions, consider this: in the space of one week, citizens in the US have been left reeling by the killing of a black woman at the hands of police, while many were also working together to propel another black woman in her bid for the presidency.
On Tuesday, Illinois police released bodycam footage showing the fatal shooting of a woman who had called 911 to report a suspected intruder in her home. The officer who shot 36-year-old Sonya Massey is now facing criminal charges, but the incident has caused outrage among the African American community in the US and across the wider world.
On the same day, Kamala Harris gave her first speech as a presidential candidate, promising “a country of freedom, compassion and rule of law”.
Harris did briefly comment on the killing of Ms Massey on X, writing: “We have much work to do to ensure that our justice system finally lives up to its name.” But with so many similar incidents of violence and killings by police reported over the years, many black Americans may well be feeling like they’ve heard this all before.
America is known for being a country full of contradictions, but this feels even more stark after the huge amount of support that has been thrown behind Harris over the past few days – particularly from black women.
On Sunday, a group called #WinWithBlackWomen organised a Zoom meeting with 40,000 black women which raised more than $1.5m for the Harris campaign.
Of course, 40,000 black women is hardly representative of the entire black American female population, but the sheer size of the group and the money raised sends a clear message that race is an integral factor in this election.
There is always a sense of hope and optimism on the rare occasions when an ethnic minority figure comes into a position of power. In 2008, Barack Obama’s flair for public speaking, fresh (non-white) appearance and “yes we can” promises of change propelled him into the White House. During that time, black women had the highest voter turnout rate among all racial, ethnic and gender groups. In 2012, black women again voted at a higher rate than any other group and played a key role in Obama’s re-election.
But his win, while a historic achievement, was at odds with the day-to-day reality of many black Americans. The Obama years gave birth to the Black Lives Matter movement in response to police brutality against the black community. Following the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in 2014, riots erupted in the city of Ferguson, Missouri. When Obama went on national television to respond to the grand jury’s decision not to indict the accused officer, he appeared torn between the clear injustice facing his own people and the need to appear to come down firm on law and order as the leader of the most powerful nation on earth.
“We are a nation built on the rule of law. And so we need to accept that this decision was the grand jury’s to make,” he said. “There are Americans who are deeply disappointed, even angry. It’s an understandable reaction.”
This contradiction – being the president who black voters chose vs being the president that the US political system required – would go on to plague him throughout his presidency, not least as the issue of police brutality exploded. It is the reason some black American voters view him as a hero, while others view him as a disappointment.
The idea that ethnically diverse politicians can somehow fix deep-rooted racial issues in society is a misguided narrative, but one that is still being used in the US and the UK today despite the wealth of evidence against it.
When Rishi Sunak became prime minister in 2022, much was made about the fact he was our first non-white leader. While Sunak was in office, he and then-home secretary Suella Braverman – both the children of immigrants – were championing strident anti-immigration policies and leading the “Stop the Boats” policy which would send asylum seekers to Rwanda.
Shortly after being elected to office, Sunak spoke about the cultural significance of placing Diwali candles outside No 10, but to some British-Asians this all meant very little. “He is an accurate representation of the elitist, classist and wealthy South Asians who have forgotten what it means to come to a new country and feel othered,” one man told British Asian Women’s Magazine.
We must be wary of putting ethnic minority leaders on pedestals. If she is elected, Kamala Harris will be inheriting a justice system which incarcerates black men on a disproportionate scale, a black unemployment rate of nearly double the national average and the terrifying prospect that you can be shot and killed by the same police service you called for help. It would be wrong to assume that these are issues she would turn her focus to because of her ethnicity.
While identity still plays a huge role in our political climate, non-white political figures who are praised for being “diverse” are ultimately ingested by a centuries-old system that is primarily invested in preserving the status quo.
As a result, the so-called “progress” that they are meant to represent is inevitably stifled, regardless of their intentions.