What the Kamala Harris campaign meant to women of color
SIOUX CITY, IOWA - AUGUST 08: Democratic presidential hopeful U.S. Sen Kamala Harris (D-CA) speaks during a campaign rally on August 08, 2019 in Sioux City, Iowa. Kamala Harris kicked off her five day river-to-river bus tour across Iowa promoting her "3AM Agenda" to Iowans. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Photo: Justin Sullivan, Getty Images
Women are equally capable.
Women are more than what you see on the surface.
Women navigate the world differently.
Kamala Harris made a decision when it was time to do so. She has not wavered. She has taken a course that was efficient and has demonstrated strength. She elevated the voices of others and she is a woman who is offering an example of what can be possible for others who have been negated by systems of oppression. I thank her for being visible, for being brave, and for being willing to take on the scrutiny, the hate, and the machine.
I cannot imagine facing the media machine as a high level politician. The misperception, mislabeling, and misrepresentation would leave me no energy for my own healing. Yet, women step into the ring every day. Why? Because our experience matters and if we are not writing policy and voting on issues related to women, our voices will not be present and our needs left unmet.
Women see the world a bit differently. And women who are not white will continue to raise the quality and standards—that is what we do. That is also why women of color are attacked verbally, threatened physically, and tortured emotionally. They hold power. We hold power. We have the heart it will take to unapologetically educate our children with the truth, nurture our communities, support our male allies, and even see humanity beyond the tropes of gender, race, and class that we are fed daily through media channels, all of them: tweets, online posts, IG’s, etc.
What does U.S. Senator Kamala Harris mean to us? Senator Harris elevates the voices of women who look, feel, and see things as she does.