Vote for Kamala Harris – or not – but don’t do it because she’s Black or a woman | Opinion

Politics is rarely about the issues and often about personalities — who you are and what you look like.

It has already started with vice president and now presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

Republican Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee called Harris a “DEI vice president” on X last week. (Maybe that’s not just about Harris. Burchett apparently loves calling people DEI hires.)

Or a parody ad, also on X, that uses deepfake audio and calls her — you guessed it — a “diversity hire.” Let’s get some new material, folks.

On the flip side, thousands of Black men, women and others (including white men) have gathered on video conference calls to raise money and endorse Harris, who is the daughter of an Indian mother and Jamaican father. Harris is proud of her ancestry, acknowledging on her White House VP page that she is “the first Black American, and the first South Asian American to be elected to this position.”

It’s clear that she identifies as a Black woman. She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha, a historically Black sorority. She graduated from Howard University, a historically Black college, before receiving her law degree from UC Law San Francisco. You also can’t discount the fact that Harris received approval from Beyonce to use her anthem “Freedom” in Harris’ campaign.

Beyonce? That’s like getting approval from Black womankind.

As Dead Mike sang in the satire film “CB4,” that’s “Blackity Black, y’all.”

Despite all that, I have a message for those of you who are African American, and for those of you who are not:

Don’t vote for Harris because she is Black or because she is a woman. And don’t vote against her for those two reasons, either.

While Harris surely needs the support of the Black community, she can’t win without a strong turnout from Democrats of any race, and by turning some independent and moderate Republican voters her way.

According to a poll conducted by NPR, PBS News and Marist conducted in July, Harris is trailing among independents, and gained the support of only 29% of independent women compared to 43% who said they would vote for Donald Trump.

Assuming she becomes the presumptive nominee, my eye is on Harris. But not because of her gender or ancestry.

If she wins, it would be a landmark: first president with South Asian ancestry, first woman president. But here’s another: First woman to beat Trump.

That alone is a reason Harris will get blue votes. But also, because she represents the present administration and its platform, which many Democrats already agree with.

Another important indicator is communication. Does Harris spout hatred against people groups? Does she use tolerant speech? Does she call for unity and mean it? That’s a startling difference between Harris and Trump.

She has strong experience in elected office, including as a prosecutor. From Oakland, California, she has been a district attorney, attorney general and U.S. senator before challenging Joe Biden early in the 2020 presidential election campaign cycle.

Does she have presidential experience? No, but she’s spent the last four years as an understudy for the job. She’s been an active VP working on legislation, and has represented the U.S. with world leaders here and abroad.

I would like to see the Harris for President page fleshed out with her issues alongside the heavy fundraising. It has been more than a week since the campaign got going, so it’s time to publish the topics most important to her.

True, many of you know them already: women’s reproductive health, voting rights, climate action and moderate gun control — the last of which might speak directly to Kansas Citians still struggling with life in a city that has a high homicide rate.

When President Biden announced stepping down and endorsed Harris, I waited to see what the rest of the party would do. It didn’t take long for veteran party leaders to back her: Rep. Nancy Pelosi, former speaker of the House, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, along with hundreds of other congressional Democrats.

And, perhaps most important to a lot of Harris fans, the Obamas have thrown their approval her way.

Look, I’m not telling you how to vote, but using ethnicity and gender alone aren’t good reasons. For the first time, Black women have a candidate they can identify with. I understand that, but Harris has got more going for her than that.

If that’s the reason you vote for Harris, it reduces her to the very DEI hire those bullies claim she is.

And if you don’t vote for her because you can’t identify with her, ask yourself why that matters.