A few days ago, I came across a video of a young man going around University Campuses in Nigeria, stopping female students to have a chat with them. In the three different videos of the same guy, the process was the same. He would walk up to a student and ask her if she had a boyfriend. All three said ‘No’. He would then point to his flashy car and ask them if they would like to spend time with him and he would even give them a ticket to visit him in Lagos. The excited students would then follow this presumably rich stranger to supermarkets, salons, boutiques and restaurants, to demonstrate that this is what every girl hopes for – to find a rich, handsome man who would make all their dreams come true. According to those who know the young man in question, he gets sponsorship from various brands to advertise their products, so he uses the girls to market the goods and services of his clients. It does not matter if all this is pre-arranged ‘content’ with all the girls in question, the message is the same. The attention, affections and bodies of young women are all available for the right price.
In the early hours of June 28th, which was June 27th US Eastern time, I watched the Presidential Debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. I did not expect the elderly Joe Biden to stride on to the stage with the agility of a Barack Obama, so I let his hesitant shuffle slide. However, approximately ten minutes into the debate, it was obvious that a slow gait was not the only problem President Joe Biden would have that night. His freezing, stumbling, mumbling and incoherence was painful to watch. My husband said, ‘this is bad’, and that turned out to be a gross understatement. It was catastrophic. Minutes later, my husband was asleep and I was still staring at the screen in horror. Shortly after, I switched off the television but still could not fall asleep. I thought about something I read before the debate, that some of the President’s staff had deliberately scheduled the debate early, so that the Democratic Party would still have enough time to look for a Plan B if they felt President Biden was not up to the task. I am not one to believe conspiracy theories, but it did look like the President was set up so that they could carry out a necessary surgical procedure before it was too late.
The whispers of concern before the debate grew into loud statements after till eventually, almost the entire party machinery as well as potential voters were yelling at the top of their voices that there was no way the election could be won with President Biden on the ticket. At this point, it was no longer a question of President Biden running for reelection, it was about what other choices they had, since the primary season was virtually at an end and the Democratic Convention is taking place in August. Some names were floated as possibilities, but every time the name of the Vice-President Kamala Harris came up, there was dismissal and derision. The more charitable commentators would say something along the lines of ‘yes, she would certainly be in the mix, but there would be a process to consider other qualified candidates’. The ‘other qualified candidates’ included names such as Governor Gavin Newson of California, Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Governor JB Pritzker of Illinois, Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania. These names, and more, are quite a distinguished set of political leaders, but somehow, it began to sound like ‘how can Kamala Harris be considered a serious contender’? Then there were those who realised that it would not be easy to pass over a sitting Vice-President who happened to be the first black, Asian woman to occupy the seat. There was also the technicality of the campaign funds available to the Biden-Harris Campaign, which legally could not be passed over to another candidate unless the person in whose name the funds were raised voluntarily stepped aside.
On Sunday July 21st, President Joe Biden not only stepped aside as the Presidential candidate of his party, he nominated his Vice-President, Kamala Harris to succeed him. In the first twenty-four hours, there was a lot of posturing (rightfully so) about how there would be a process to throw up other possible contenders so that it would not look like a coronation for Kamala at the forthcoming Democratic Convention. No one stepped forward. Then a whole lot of things happened within a space of three days. The Democratic base who had resigned themselves to the sinking ship that the polling of Biden versus Trump was foretelling suddenly came alive with massive jolts of electricity. The Harris campaign raised U$126 million in 72 hours, and registered more than 100,000 new volunteers. All the predicted contenders against Harris named above, as well as Democratic royalty such as Bill and Hilary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi endorsed her. Most pledged Democratic delegates threw their weight behind her. Generation Z welcomed her to Twitter with joy and enthusiasm. Unlike the Trump campaign that was always being sued by major artistes complaining about the use of their music without clearance, Beyonce granted the use of her song ‘Freedom’ to the Harris campaign. New polls started to show Kamala Haris outperforming President Biden against former President Trump. On Friday July 26th, Barack and Michele Obama endorsed Kamala in a statement that partly read, ‘at a time when the stakes have never been higher, she gives us reason to hope’.
Kamala Harris does give reason to hope. I have no voting rights in the United States, but I was one of the millions of women and men who were devastated when Hilary Clinton lost to Donald Trump in 2016. Granted, Hilary was trying to break a glass ceiling that had remained indestructible for generations, but we had hoped that she would be the one to do it and that it was time. Sadly, it did not happen. Now there is another opportunity for a first female President, up against the same opponent, but with a different history and context. While I will try to moderate my expectations, being the eternal optimist that I am, I am hopeful that the result will be different this time. There is a school of thought that believes she is being set up to lose, so that the Democratic Party can get her out of the way and start over in 2028 with a fresh slate of hopefuls. Maybe, but why can’t she win in November 2024 and make history while she is at it?
Candidate Kamala faces significant, but not insurmountable odds. There is the expected sexism, which mostly doomed Hilary’s race. Then there is the racism, which has been deployed so blatantly and shamelessly by the Republican leadership, many of them calling her a ‘DEI’ hire. DEI stands for recruitment policies that promote Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. It is a policy meant to level the playing field to give everyone a fair chance, not a ploy to bring in unqualified candidates because they happen to fill a quota. It is an old, cheap, shameful trick, which sadly, continues to be used to bait people. It is still not clear if majority of the white working-class men who supported President Biden will be on board for Kamala too, but that might be addressed in the choice of a Vice-Presidential candidate. Then there are the issues of concern to the electorate in this election year. Clear focus on strategies to deal with cost of living and inflation, immigration, women’s reproductive rights and civil liberties, to mention a few, will be critical. There are also concerns about US Foreign policy, especially on Israel and Palestine. Kamala Harris is a Vice-President. Her opponent will attempt to frame her as someone who stood by and supported bad policies and cannot be expected to do or say anything different if she becomes President. Harris is not a naïve candidate, she and her advisers will chart a course that keeps her loyal to the decisions of the administration she has been a part of, while articulating new ideas and strategies going forward. There is also the challenge of the electoral map and college. Hilary Clinton won the popular vote in 2016 but could not make the 270 electoral college votes. It does not matter how many votes you win as much as where you win. The traditional ‘Blue Wall’ States that usually produce the democratic victories crumbled in 2016 and barely held up for President Biden in 2020. The Harris campaign will have to mount a massive ‘Get out the vote’ campaign in the swing States that are always crucial in the elections, particularly Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona, North Carolina, Georgia and Nevada. Van Jones, one of my favourite CNN commentators said that people are so appalled at the way Kamala Harris is being treated, ‘they will crawl over glass to vote for her’. I hope so. The millions of white women who voted against their own interests in 2016 only to regret when Roe vs Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court in June 2022 should take note, as well as the young new voters on Tik Tok.
Why is a win for a woman in a far away country so important to me? It will show that given the right opportunities and circumstances, anyone can thrive and soar to the heavens. If we have a President Kamala Harris, we can keep telling our girls that their dignity and self-respect should not be commodities. They do not have to listen to young men hanging around them to create content to put online, they can face their studies and become the owners and founders of companies sponsoring the silly content. A certain smart young girl had a role model in her Indian mother who was a renowned academic and Jamaican father who was a Professor. She married an accomplished Corporate Lawyer, Douglas Emhoff, who might be the first ever First Gentleman of the United States. Mr. Emhoff will be a powerful role model and inspiration to many men around the world, who will learn the value of positive masculinity from him. That young girl, Kamala Harris, the alleged ‘DEI hire’ was District Attorney of San Francisco, Attorney-General of California, a US Senator, current Vice-President and the presumptive Presidential Candidate of the Democratic Party. I am with her, and yes, I have reason to hope. Go Kamala, go.
Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi is a Gender Specialist, Policy Advocate and Writer. She is the Founder of Abovewhispers.com, an online community for women. She can be reached at BAF@abovewhispers.com