The MAGA Black Test for Kamala Harris

I just finished a great biography on Jim Henson called… Jim Henson: A Biography and I was reminded of many things from my childhood, including the Kermit song “It’s Not Easy Being Green.”  At the risk of sounding too much like the worst of Tom Friedman, for VP Kamala Harris, it’s not easy being bi-racial.

As a bi-racial, former prosecutor who has had Jewish significant others, I have particular credibility to speak on all things Kamala Harris (disclaimer: this is a joke. Facts, but a joke).  In the bi-racial word there are many different shades and types (I will be focusing on the Black and a +1 in terms of bi-racial identity).  You have your Barack Obamas, your Tiger Woodses, your Lenny Kravitzes on one end and then you have Rashida Jones, Halsey and myself on the other end (Amber Rose is not invited, though she did find me funny at a comedy club last year).

Side note – if I were a woman I think I would have made a good “beige, sports thirst trap to sit in between two men arguing sports for millions of dollars” woman.

Now one of the things about being bi-racial is navigating your identity within the reactions from both sides.  In someone like Barack Obama’s case there is less difficulty and pushback in identifying him as, or him identifying as, a Black man.  For me, I have been more inclined to identify as bi-racial/check all boxes that apply because of the skepticism I have gotten throughout my life from both sides (much more from white people, but not exclusively) and because I own mirrors.  For more on this please check out the hilarious special Half-Blackface on Amazon Prime (the link is on the homepage of this site).

But for someone like Kamala Harris, both visually and culturally she has embraced her identity as a Black woman.  This does not mean that she is disavowing or ignoring her Indian heritage. But in a country that is steeped historically in valuing (in a negative way) Blackness, even when partial (the 1896, Clarence Thomas favorite Plessy v Ferguson was about keeping a man who was 1/8th Black out of the white train car) it is as if some segments of America, now recognizing the cultural cache and (relative) political power of Blackness in our society want to penalize people who are not “fully” Black.  Not out of solidarity, but for political exploitation.

So Donald Trump, without an agenda or a clue at this point, has decided that his line of attack on Harris will be the favorite of the small, but social media saturating, demographic of Black men and women who do not consider Kamala Harris Black.  Now, some of this occurred with Barack Obama, but he won over white people early, which made his electability seem more possible and a bandwagon you don’t want to miss. But he was also a man, and that gap of pro-Black and pro-Straight Black Men is the place that social media grifters and Donald Trump have found common cause.

To be clear who I am talking about by way of example – if you had a Black friend or acquaintance whose response to Bill Cosby going to jail was “What about Harvey Weinstein?” and then that person did not care to know or value the fact that Harvey Weinstein also went to jail – it’s him (or less likely, her).  And Donald Trump, knowing that his best way to take Black voters from the Democrats is to pander to loud, ignorant social media voices who might just do enough (so the theory goes) to depress Black turnout on the margins, where the election will possibly be won.  This is a man and a movement that believed him being justly convicted for crimes would endear him to Black people because, crime (while in the next sentence saying Blue Lives Matter, Back The Blue, don’t be nice to people you arrest, etc).

As transparent and disgusting their approach is in showing their ignorance of Black and bi-racial people, it’s the way they are doing it that is somehow even worse. The seem to think they have the standing to test or validate Kamala Harris’ Black credentials.  Whether it’s (in jest I assume, but still) that she say the N word and let people decide how they feel about it, or questioning why she could not (or did not want to) name her favorite rapper, it shows you how the millions of people in MAGA simplistically view Black people in this country.  I would not put it past them to want a dance or sprinting component to prove this as well. Because there are only two types of Black people MAGA comprehends. The first is any stereotype, good or bad.  A muscular rapper, a talented athlete, a scary criminal, a poor, single mom on drugs with several children, etc.  And the other is “the good one” like Tim Scott – a man who practically reaches back to antebellum United States to reassure, placate and serve white people – both their feelings and their wishes.

I remember standing in the back of the Toledo Funny Bone 14 years ago and the emcee was participating in a dance portion of the headliner’s set.  I was standing next to a blonde white woman who was enjoying the show in the back and I said to her “He’s pretty good!” And her response was “Well yeah, he’s Black.”  I could fill a medium sized book with all of these things I have heard in my life, but this is how they view Black people. No nuance, no humanity, no diversity. Some of this ignorance is a product of our segregation in society (largely a result of racist laws, policies and customs), but some of it is a result of being a bad person.

Donald Trump has repeatedly, for decades shown himself to be a stone cold racist.  But for any Black, bi-racial or simply decent human being who gets down with the MAGA movement, you are joining the most base and simple group of people in our country.  And to quote Joe Biden (feign outrage, but you know he’s right), “If you vote for Trump, you ain’t Black.”  And however, Kamala Harris identifies, the very last people with the intellectual or moral authority to put her identity to any test are the ones who are dumb enough, racist enough or self-hating enough to support Trump.