Why Black Votes Are Being Wasted on Kamala Harris — RT World News

There has been much talk about US Vice President Kamala Harris and her chances of becoming the next president. Many are optimistic that she can bring positive change in terms of gender equality, racial equality and sound foreign policy, while prominent commentators such as Mehdi Hasan believe that she could be “a little better than Joe Biden” in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Renowned US election forecaster and professor Allan Lichtman favours Harris to win in November. She became the Democratic presidential nominee after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek re-election and then endorsed her.

Some political commentators in the US and elsewhere are portraying Harris, 59, as a new symbol of gender and racial equality in the global political landscape. As a black Asian woman, they argue, she can overcome racism and break through the toughest ceiling in American politics.

Is this really true? Or is this whole PR exercise to present her as a new messiah part of an American strategy to manufacture consent and create a story that deceives the world community? It has happened before. It could happen again.

From 2009 to 2017, Barack Obama served as the 44th president of the United States for two four-year terms. His victory as the first African-American president in the country’s history was also celebrated and romanticized as a radical shift in the same way that Harris is now being celebrated – as if a new dawn of hope and peace had arrived.

Did Obama live up to the hype? Did his presidency make the world a better place? Did it change the harsh reality for ordinary African Americans? And will Harris' victory lead to better lives for blacks in America?

Poverty data in the U.S. show that black and Hispanic people continue to live on the edge, with nearly 17 percent living below the poverty line. People of color continue to be the primary targets of hate crimes and racially motivated violent incidents.

Think back to the immortal lines of Martin Luther King Jr.'s “I Have a Dream” speech on August 28, 1963, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. He must be turning in his grave today, because six decades after his historic speech, America remains a country where black people still “judging by the color of the skin” and not “according to the content of their character.”

Quite in tune with King's famous line: “We must rise to majestic heights, meeting physical strength with spiritual strength,” George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American man, did not act aggressively when faced with unimaginable brutality at the hands of Minneapolis police on May 25, 2021. According to an independent investigation into surveillance footage of the horrific incident, the victim said: “I can't breathe” at least 16 times after he was grabbed and held face down by police officer Derek Chauvin and his colleagues.

Floyd was arrested after he was accused of buying cigarettes using an allegedly counterfeit $20 bill. A local convenience store employee who called police said the man was “terribly drunk” And “not in control of oneself.” For more than eight minutes, Chauvin applied intense pressure to Floyd's torso, legs, and neck. It proved fatal. Floyd was pronounced dead at the hospital.

It may be easy for some to dismiss Floyd’s death as an exception rather than the norm, while others will point out that the incident occurred while Republican President Donald Trump was in office. But the rot is complete. Whether Republicans or Democrats are in power, the underlying problems surrounding racism in the United States remain systemic. Black people will continue to face the heat. Some may also argue that the United States has made great strides in racial and gender equality since then. But the facts and data say otherwise.

According to a Pew Research Center report, black Americans see “little improvement in their lives despite the country's increased attention to racial issues.” A study has found that nearly 18 months after the death of George Floyd in May 2020, “nearly two-thirds (64%) of all black adults, including those who are multiracial or Hispanic,” felt that the national reckoning sparked by the Floyd incident had failed to increase attention to racial inequality as hoped or expected. Only about 13% of respondents, according to an October 2021 poll, expected that “Black people will achieve equality in the United States.”

Racial discrimination remains “the main question” for the vast majority of African Americans – 82%, while hate crimes based on race, religion, color and sexual orientation continue.

In May 2022, an 18-year-old white American shot and killed 13 people, 11 of whom were black, at a Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo, New York. Police said the attack was livestreamed on social media and deleted minutes after it was posted. Racially motivated attacks and hate crimes against African Americans are common in the United States.

In August 2023, in another racially motivated attack, a gunman targeted black people at a Dollar General Store in Jacksonville, Florida. The shooting left at least three African Americans dead.

Moving on, let us not delude ourselves into believing the propaganda and lies spread by American commentators. Indeed, Kamala Harris did not attend Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent speech to a joint session of the US Congress. However, she did not boycott Netanyahu; she was busy campaigning. She later met with the Prime Minister and was delighted with him. “a frank and constructive meeting with Netanyahu.”

She told Netanyahu that “I will always ensure that Israel can defend itself, including against Iran and Iranian-backed militias such as Hamas and Hezbollah.” At a press conference after meeting with the Israeli leader, Harris said: “From the time I was a little girl raising money to plant trees for Israel, to serving in the U.S. Senate and now in the White House, I have been unwaveringly committed to Israel's existence, its security, and the people of Israel.”

She went on to talk about the enormous humanitarian crisis in Gaza, peace talks, the Palestinians' right to self-determination, and the need for a two-state solution. But it all felt like a passing reference and a clever balancing act.

Against this backdrop, hoping for positive change in the lives of African Americans or Asians, or for serious and sincere efforts to end the suffering of tens of thousands of Palestinians, is a pipe dream. America’s symbolism around racial and gender equality is as misleading as its “morally-oriented” foreign policy.

American symbolic gestures lack sincerity of intent. Harris’s father, Donald Harris, is Jamaican, and they both identify as black. Harris’s mother, Shyamala Gopalan, is from the southern Indian city of Chennai, formerly Madras. Using ethnic identity as an advantage and presenting it as a success for a disenfranchised and marginalized black community is one thing; changing things on the ground is quite another. Harris’s attempts to exploit her minority status and cast herself as a messiah for the disenfranchised are empty words, because she has failed to become an ambassador for Palestinian women and children.