Commentary

COMMENTARY: With Kamala Harris, the fix is in

FLORIDA COURIER — It is painfully obvious that Kamala Harris is unprepared for the scrutiny that comes with waging a presidential campaign.

Published

5 years ago

February 24, 2019

Oakland Post

By Margaret Kimberley

It is painfully obvious that Kamala Harris is unprepared for the scrutiny that comes with waging a presidential campaign. But it is equally obvious that her lack of gravitas may not matter at all.

“The fix is in,” as the old saying goes. She is the choice of the Democratic Party leadership, the Black misleaders, and their partners in corporate media. They will give her cover whenever she needs help. Gaffes and comical pandering at the expense of Black voters may not hurt her chances at all.

Kamala Harris has no natural constituency. She is a relative newcomer on the national political scene and is known only for somewhat close questioning of Trump appointees during Senate hearings. Her record as a prosecutor and California attorney general ought to make her persona non grata with the Black voters who she sought to lock up as often as possible. But she is being foisted upon voters because the party and their rich backers have made her their choice.

The Obama formula

The Democrats are hoping that having another biracial Black person on the ticket can make up for their lack of substance and hers. All Harris knows how to do is pander, and she doesn’t even do that very well.

On The Breakfast Club radio show, she was asked if she opposed marijuana legalization. “That’s not true… Half my family is from Jamaica. Are you kidding me?” She was lying. As a prosecutor, she opposed a 2010 proposition that would have legalized recreational use. She opposed it as late as 2015.

The promotion of a stereotype didn’t go over very well, including with her own father. Donald Harris said that his ancestors “…must be turning in their grave right now to see their family’s name, reputation and proud Jamaican identity being connected, in any way, jokingly or not with the fraudulent stereotype of a pot-smoking joy seeker and in the pursuit of identity politics.”

Hillary pandered, too

Hillary Clinton famously sought to ingratiate herself with Black voters by claiming, also on The Breakfast Club radio show, that she carried hot sauce in her purse at all times. Harris can now be seen putting hot sauce on her collard greens too, but the absurd mimicry isn’t hurting her any. The endorsements are already coming her way.

Harris would be a bad joke were it not for the fact that the right people are behind her. Not only did she needlessly include every person of Jamaican ancestry in her bad joke, but she claimed to have gotten high while listening to artists like Tupac and Snoop Dogg ‒ who weren’t even recording when she was a young student. But the misleaders and their patrons have made their choice and they won’t allow her own foolish words to take her out of the running.

Conversely, Bernie Sanders, the true frontrunner, is scrutinized over minor issues and must fend off bald-faced lies. He can expect a repeat of the treatment he received from the Democratic Party leadership and corporate media in 2016. While the hollow woman Harris can do no wrong, Sanders will get bad press ‒ no matter what he does.

In a bind

As always, Black people are caught in the racist bind which makes one of the major parties the de facto White party, and the other the Black party. The understandable desire to keep the White party Republicans out of office twists authentically progressive political leanings.

If Harris prevails in early primaries and caucuses and looks like a winner, she will become a Black voter favorite ‒ just as Barack Obama did in 2008 after his Iowa caucus victory. Legitimate questions about her record in public office will disappear and she will have a good chance of winning the party’s nomination.

Her silly lies are already being defended. The Breakfast Club hosts ran to her aid when the proof of her stupid fib became apparent. Host Charlemagne the God gave a sad preview of the foolishness still to come: “I want everybody to know they’re doing the work of Fox News. The Black Twitter people you see that are going in on Kamala because of this, Y’all are doing the work of Fox News.”

Worse than ever

After the Democratic Party debacle that put Donald Trump in office, Black voters are worse off than ever. Their enemies get the stamp of approval and what looks like a political victory will in fact be another disaster.

Harris could be Obama 2.0 ‒ and we know how well that turned out. Happiness overrepresentation would be nothing but a tremendous defeat.

***

Margaret Kimberley is a co-founder of BlackAgendaReport.com and writes a weekly column there. Contact her at Margaret.Kimberley@BlackAgendaReport.com.

This article originally appeared in the Florida Courier.

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Opinion: Lessons for Current Student Protesters From a San Francisco State Strike Veteran

How the nation’s first College of Ethnic studies came about, bringing together Latino, African American and Asian American disciplines may offer some clues as to how to ease the current turmoil on American college campuses over the Israel-Hamas war. After the deadline passed to end the Columbia University encampment by 2 p.m. Monday, student protesters blockaded and occupied Hamilton Hall in a symbolic move early Tuesday morning. Protesters did the same in 1968.

Published

8 hours ago

May 3, 2024

Oakland Post

iStock Photo

By Emil Guillermo

After the deadline passed to end the Columbia University encampment by 2 p.m. Monday, student protesters blockaded and occupied Hamilton Hall in a symbolic move early Tuesday morning.

Protesters did the same in 1968.

That made me think of San Francisco State University, 1968.

The news was filled with call backs to practically every student protest in the past six decades as arrests mounted into hundreds on nearly two dozen campuses around the country.

In 1970, the protests at Kent State were over the Vietnam War. Ohio National Guardsmen came in, opened fire, and killed four students.

Less than two weeks later that year, civil rights activists outside a dormitory at Jackson State were confronted by armed police. Two African American students were killed, twelve injured.

But again, I didn’t hear anyone mention San Francisco State University, 1968.

That protest addressed all the issues of the day and more. The student strike at SFSU was against the Vietnam war.

That final goal was eventually achieved, but there was violence, sparked mostly by “outside agitators,” who were confronted by police.

“People used the term ‘off the pigs’ but it was more rally rhetoric than a call to action (to actually kill police),” said Daniel Phil Gonzales, who was one of the strikers in 1968.

Gonzales, known as the go-to resource among Filipino American scholars for decades, went on to teach at what was the positive outcome of the strike, San Francisco State University’s College of Ethnic Studies. It’s believed to be the first of its kind in the nation. Gonzales recently retired after more than 50 years as professor.

As for today’s protests, Gonzales is dismayed that the students have constantly dealt with charges of antisemitism.

“It stymies conversation and encourages further polarization and the possibility of violent confrontation,” he said. “You’re going to be labeled pro-Hamas or pro-terrorist.”

That’s happening now. But we forget we are dealing not with Hamas proxies. We are dealing with students.

Gonzales said that was a key lesson at SF State’s strike. The main coalition driving the strike was aided by self-policing from inside of the movement. “That’s very difficult to maintain. Once you start this kind of activity, you don’t know who’s going to join,” he said.

Gonzales believes that in the current situation, there is a patch of humanity, common ground, where one can be both pro-Palestine and pro-Israel. He said it’s made difficult if you stand against the belligerent policies of Benjamin Netanyahu. In that case, you’re likely to be labeled antisemitic.

Despite that, Gonzales is in solidarity with the protesters and the people of Gaza, generally. Not Hamas. And he sees how most of the young people protesting are in shock at what he called the “duration of the absolute inhumane kind of persecution and prosecution of the Palestinians carried out by the Israeli government.”

As a survivor of campus protest decades ago, Gonzales offered some advice to the student protesters of 2024.

“You have to have a definable goal, but right now the path to that goal is unclear,” he said.

About the Author

Emil Guillermo is a journalist and commentator. A veteran newsman in TV and print, he is a former host of NPR’s “All Things Considered.”