Vice President Kamala Devi Harris is not the first Black person nor woman to run for president. Yet she faces a familiar wave of racist and sexist personal attacks. Her opponent, former President Donald Trump, has a long history of insulting Black people, women and immigrants.
Trump has leveled a litany of bigoted attacks over the years, including some of his most recent invectives such as his attack on Fulton County, Ga. District Attorney Fani Willis: “She ended up having an affair with the head of the gang or a gang member.” There is no evidence to this claim. On Harris: “They’re saying she isn’t qualified because she wasn’t born in this country.” Harris was born in Oakland. On former Secretary of State Hillary Clintoon: “I think the only card she has is the woman’s card.”
Activating White male grievances
Multiple Republican congresspersons have already called Harris a “DEI Hire” (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) implying that the former U.S. Senator and California Attorney General is not sufficiently qualified to be president and was only thrust into the campaign to satisfy a liberal racial quota. The recent MAGA onslaught may point to how focused Republicans have been on activating White male grievances and exploiting fears of women and people of color obtaining more power.
Ange-Marie Hancock, director of the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at Ohio State University, has conducted extensive study of Harris’ career and believes there is a reason why Trump is so fixated on Harris’ identity as a multiracial woman. The objective is to sway White independent and swing state voters over to his side–whether consciously or unconsciously.
“If you were to survey independent voters or swing voters, I bet you get a strong majority who would say ‘We really don’t like the way in which he talks about women or talks about his opponents,” Hancock explained. “Conversely, people are filling in the ‘gaps’ and saying privately ‘you know, maybe he’s right in some way’ in that we all harbor implicit biases.” Hancock noted that the hateful language racist imagery used to describe Harris only gets worse in more conservative circles or among the adherents of the so-called “ultra MAGA” political persuasion.
“Some things can get particularly dark and really draw upon the most pernicious stereotypes of African-American and Asian-American women, sometimes very sexualized images,” Hancock said.
‘Jezebel’ and misogynoir
It’s an ugly calculus. Far right conservatives have dubbed Harris “Jezebel,” while other conservative activists have suggested that she’s “slept her way” to the top by citing past romantic relationships. GOP commentators have also echoed many of the same “birtherism” attacks that were once used against former President Barack Obama in falsely claiming her candidacy isn’t viable because her father was born in Jamaica and her mother hailing from India.
The common thread in all of these attacks is to take aim at Harris’ identity, rather than her agenda or experience. The attacks are examples of misogynoir, a compounded form of sexism and racism directed at any woman of color who has advanced to the highest levels of professionalism whether it be business, science/medicine, law, entertainment or, in this case, politics. This form of deflection is often paired with questions why Harris hasn’t had any biological children, and how that may discredit her from being a true leader due to claims that she’s not sufficiently invested in the future of the country.
Harris’ allies see Trump’s attacks as bait that would draw her into a conversation on his terms rather than hers, something that could turn off swing voters she needs to reach. It’s a familiar playbook in a high-stakes contest to force an opponent to dwell on “identity politics” rather than the issues–to make it more about “her” instead of the people. So far, Harris has avoided the fray and has placed her focus on the pressing issues such as the economy, abortion rights, immigration, climate change and domestic and foreign affairs in general.
Refusing to dwell on identity politics
Juliet Hooker, a professor of political science at Brown University, offered a more sinister portrait of forces working to disparage Harris. “They hope to taint her with the suspicion of not having earned the positions she has achieved and harness the fears of those who resent seeing women and people of color in elite spaces.”
It’s not just Black liberals that fall within the realm of racist rhetoric. The former president’s latest display of the behavior–which has for decades earned him such an ignominious title–occurred at an Aug. 30 rally in Pennsylvania during which Trump singled out Florida Republican Rep. Byron Donalds. “That one is smart,” Trump said. “You have smart ones and you have some that aren’t quite so good.” Trump didn’t elaborate on who the “not so good ones” are.
In this instance, Trump’s words were a version of such White racist language and logic as “you are not like the other ones” or “you are so articulate.” The underlying assumption is that Black people, as a group, are stupid, dumb, unintelligent, ungodly, inherently childlike and primitive, possess ”bad culture” and in other ways are generally inferior to White people.
The ‘good’ and ‘bad’ minorities
Trump has made similar claims about “good” and “bad” members of other ethnic and racial minority groups For example, he has repeatedly described Jewish Americans who do not support him and the Republican Party as being “bad Jews” who need to “have their heads examined.” He has even inferred that Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, is a “crappy Jew.”
“He and his running mate, J.D. Vance, implied [Harris’] mixed race–heritage that millions of Americans share–is evidence of a sinister ‘chameleon-like’ character that, he insists, explains policy reversals on energy and immigration,” said CNN reporter Stephen Collinson. “His dark campaign ads allege she will slash Social Security benefits by welcoming millions of undocumented migrants into the country.” Collinson emphasized that Trump’s hardline political rhetoric–even by his own standards–likely means that the next month through Election Day will be “especially brutal.”
Harris’ supporters are divided over the possible impact of the vice president’s race and gender. A Pew Research Center poll conducted early last month saw 36 percent of respondents say Harris being Black and Asian will help her with voters, compared with 31 percent who said it will hurt her. Somewhat more Harris supporters said the fact that Harris is a woman will hurt (42 percent) rather than help her (34 percent).
What the polls and surveys say
Trump supporters were much more inclined to say Harris’ race and gender will help her candidacy. Forty-six percent said the fact that Harris is Black and Asian will help her with voters. An identical share said her gender will be an asset. Only 8 percent of Trump supporters said Harris’ race and ethnicity will hurt her, while 15 percent said the same thing about her gender.
A Newsweek survey in August, just after Harris had secured the nomination, asked White respondents whom they intend to vote for president. Then they asked for opinions about three statements that measure generalized racial attitudes, or what political scientists call the “Fear, Institutionalized Racism and Empathy (FIRE) scale. These statements, taken from a variety of respondents (in terms of political affiliation), were “White people in the U.S. have certain advantages because of the color of their skin,” “racial problems in the U.S. are rare, isolated situations’ and “I am angry that racism exists.”
The survey takers found that White respondents who deny White people’s advantages, the prevalence of racism, and who do not express anger about racism are considered to have higher racial animus. The findings of the survey saw 91 percent of White people with low racial animus indicating they would vote for Harris, while 88 percent of White people with high racial animus said they would vote for Trump. In summation, the patterns demonstrate that Harris is being penalized by a portion of the White electorate due to her racial identity and that Trump is taking full advantage of this socio-political dichotomy.
Close elections are won or lost at the margins. The campaign that can best reach voters who strongly identify with their ethnic heritage is a campaign built to win. Right now, give the edge to Kamala Harris.
