As an independent voter and an immigrant from the Caribbean, the birthplace of Kamala Harris’s father, I should be thrilled at the possibility of the U.S. having its first president with Caribbean roots. However, Harris herself hardly acknowledges her Caribbean heritage, with her White House bio simply stating she is the “first woman, the first Black American, and the first South Asian American to be elected to” the position of vice president.
In 2021, I led a Caribbean collective that celebrated her ascent as the first Caribbean American vice president of the U.S., simply because she and the mainstream media were not recognizing this fact. Harris barely responded, and then only after I threatened to publicly accuse her of ignoring us and her roots. In a speech, she made a single, brief mention of her Caribbean heritage without specifying Jamaica or her father. Many in the Caribbean community felt slighted, especially since she consistently highlights her South Asian roots.
Despite this, I want to feel ecstatic that finally, there could be someone to end the xenophobic rhetoric from the right once and for all. I want to feel enthusiasm as a woman, a person of color, and an immigrant. I want to be thrilled at Harris potentially being the Shirley Chisholm of our time. After all, she raised a record-breaking $81 million within 24 hours of announcing her candidacy and secured enough support from delegates at the Democratic National Convention on July 22nd to clinch the Democratic nomination.
But sadly, I do not feel enthused, mainly because I do not believe that Harris can beat Donald Trump this November. I think, deep down, President Joe Biden felt similarly, reading the current U.S. political landscape—that Harris cannot defeat Trump, despite the strong Black voter base.
Biden tried to hold on as long as he could, despite his frailty, insisting he alone could beat Trump. He reportedly kept asking how Harris was polling against Trump and his MAGA followers because many feel, deep down, that she cannot win. Beyond Harris’s lack of experience, her failures as immigration czar, and her inability to win a primary election in the past and connect with voters, there is a deeper issue that many on the left are refusing to face.
It is the same issue that caused so much animosity toward Barack Obama, the first Black president of the U.S. It is the reason for the rise of the Tea Party and Trump’s MAGA supporters. America is still inherently a racist and sexist place, and in 2024, it is more so than ever. Hillary Clinton failed to beat Trump in 2016 because, at the end of the day, the country remains a patriarchal society, especially in rural America. Today, this is even more pronounced, with Trump fueling the flames of sexism and racism in critical Electoral College states.
Democrats have lost ground in these states while Republicans have gained due to their supporters being more adept at participating in the Census. After Biden stepped aside, polls showed Trump and Harris in a tight race, separated by a single percentage point among likely voters. The polls were wrong in 2016, as Hillary Clinton found out. Many older White Democratic voters might not vote for Harris and are unlikely to disclose this to pollsters.
Even if Harris manages to win the popular vote, buoyed by the Black vote, the immigrant vote, the youth vote, and the female vote, she might not secure the Electoral College vote, which is crucial to defeating Trump. Trump’s largely white base has already begun launching racist and sexist attacks on Harris, calling her derogatory names. They are determined to prevent America from electing another Black president and “poisoning the blood” of their country, which is what I fear most in this election.
Felicia J. Persaud is the publisher of NewsAmericasNow.com, a daily news outlet focused on positive news about the Black immigrant communities of the Caribbean and Latin America.