When Joe Biden announced his pick for vice president, Senator Kamala Harris made history: Harris is the first woman of color to run on a major party’s ticket in a presidential election (the first woman of color to run for vice president is Charlotta Brass, who ran on the Progressive Party’s ticket in 1952). While Harris’ nomination is an important step forward, it has nevertheless received a lot of backlash, with the media’s representation of Harris hurting marginalized communities of biracial women around the country.
Running for any public office is a major feat and battle. The media scrutinizes every candidate during their campaigns, and the further one’s name gets to being on the ballot, the harsher the judgment becomes. The coverage of this election cycle has been particularly hard for Senator Harris. She is running among three older white men as a woman of color and of course, the media has a watchful eye on her.
The first presidential debate was a messy spectacle, so the stakes were high for the October 7 vice-presidential debate, less than a month before the election. Oliver C. Haug described the vice-presidential debate saying: “The most important takeaway from the debate was how it highlighted the burden of respectability placed on women—especially Black women—and the notable double standards that exist on the debate stage.” While former Vice President Joe Biden told his opponent to “Shut up, man,” when Trump started talking over him, Harris had to use another phrase when she was interrupted by Pence during their debate.
“I’m still speaking,” Harris said a number of times throughout the vice-presidential debate on October 9. It’s a phrase all women use often when conversing with male colleagues. Harris, aware of the gendered dynamics and expectations that she has been placed under, could never have said “shut up” to Pence as her running mate did. Christina Reynolds, former Clinton deputy communications director and VP of Communications at EMILY’s List (a PAC who advocates for Democratic female candidates around the country), told BuzzFeed News that “there are things that Mike Pence, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden can do that Kamala Harris can’t. It’s hard to imagine that she would say ‘will you shut up, man’ and it would become a rallying point.” From the start of her campaign, Harris has had to compose herself as more docile and less confrontational than her male counterparts; but even still, she is portrayed as an angry Black woman.
“Angry,” “mean,” “aggressive” and “disrespectful” are just a few of the words Trump has used to describe Harris. Members of his party are convinced that she is a power-hungry Black woman who is only running to benefit herself. “So tonight, we’ll be airing the vice-presidential debate, but what we’ll actually be looking at is Kamala Harris’s audition for the presidency,” said Fox News host Tucker Carlson the morning of the debate. “That’s the office she’s running for, no matter what they tell you.”
By using these adjectives, Trump strengthens the stereotypes and expectations “about how women should behave, how people of color should behave, and especially how women of color should behave,” wrote Maggie Astor for the New York Times.
After Harris was picked to run with Biden, the media and Republican opponents also brought in the Jezebel trope: a stereotypical caricature of Black women, shown as being seductive or using lewd tactics to get what they want. Rush Limbaugh, a right-wing radio host, said that she must have slept her way to the top, and “Joe and Hoe” t-shirts were available on Amazon.
Sadly, it doesn’t end there. Again, after her nomination, there was great speculation on whether or not she was born in the US, and the question even trended on Google. Right-wing media especially has been trying to identify Senator Harris throughout her campaign, even before Biden picked her as a running mate. Media attention around Harris “underscor[es] not only the double standards women and people of color face but what happens when multiple identities meet: a Black woman, an Indian-American woman, a woman whose parents were immigrants.” Kamala Harris does not need you to identify her; she can do that herself.
Harris’ team prepared her for her debates strategically — they had no other choice. “The expectations for her have been stratospheric, and the margin for error has been minuscule,” a former Harris campaign aide told BuzzFeed.
Expectations for Harris have been high since she announced her own presidential campaign back in 2019 and as the only female left in the race, and as a biracial woman, Harris is dealing with a number of double standards. Female candidates are never cut as much slack as their male counterparts are and identity policing has been more prevalent as ever.
Unlike some other politicians or what she has been portrayed as by the right-wing media, Harris is not running to flatter herself. Regardless of the racialized and sexualized misrepresentation of her, Senator Harris has proven to be a strong running mate for Biden, and we can only imagine she’ll do just as great of a job if the Democratic pair wins the election.
Today is Election Day. Be sure to go out and vote if you are eligible. Check out voting resources here, and mental health resources here and here.
