POLITICS
What Has Kamala Harris Done for the Black Community?
The answer may surprise you
Even though I haven’t worked on Wall Street in over a decade, I still communicate with some of my former colleagues several times a week. Not long ago, I had a call with a former colleague from those days who now resides in Hawaii. He was my first hire on the last trading desk I ramped up in 2006.
For what ended up being an hour-long conversation, he told me about an exchange in a Facebook group he’s a member of consisting exclusively of Black men. One of the group’s top contributors posted a photo of Kamala Harris’ extended family along with a comment to the effect of, “If you think Kamala will do anything for Black people as president, you’re out of your mind.”
According to my former colleague, the suggestion was that, because Harris’ extended family is multiracial, multi-ethnic, and multi-religious, she would be less of an ally to the African American community should she become president.
Moreover, because Harris does not fit the conventional definition of what mainstream society considers “Black,” the suggestion is that she is less a part of the diaspora than those of us whose Blackness is more apparent.
