On October 29, in front of more than 75,000 people, Kamala Harris promised to make the United States a nation big enough to embrace all dreams and strong enough to resist any fracture. Like Barack Obama before her, the Democratic candidate embodied a dream. Born to a Jamaican father and an Indian mother, Kamala Harris, presented in the United States as a black woman, could have crystallized the vote of the entire African-American community.
“The main reason why she did not pass is that she is a black woman” (Axelle Njike)
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However, several polls before the presidential election indicated that, although traditionally Democratic, the African-American community was divided, with in particular a male electorate more inclined than usual to vote for Donald Trump.
The results of the election have proven this: in strategic states like North Carolina and Georgia, for example, the vote of African-American men in favor of Kamala Harris is down several points compared to that, four years earlier, in favor of Joe Biden.
The glass ceiling again and again?
The gender issue occupied a central place in Kamala Harris’ speech, with key measures such as the right to abortion.
Under his mandate, Donald Trump appointed three conservative judges to the Supreme Court, with the result that in June 2022, the highest American court ended the constitutional protection of the right to abortion provided by the ruling 1973 Roe vs. Wade.
For feminist activist Axelle Njike, Donald Trump’s victory portends dark times for women: black women, Hispanics, the poor and transgender people who have largely mobilized for this American election. The main reason why the Democratic candidate did not pass lies in her status as a woman, thinks Axelle Njike. “We are absolutely not wanted in these spheres of power, and the fact that she is a black woman! A black man, that would have been possible, that’s what happened with Barak Obama, with all the story that was behind it, but there, with Kamala, it went too far”, thinks the activist.
“She was disqualified“, deplores Axelle Njike who wonders if “Elle (Kamala Harris, editor’s note) never had a chance with this electorate. It’s just that as a black woman, I wanted to believe it. I think it was a magnificent signal for me, for our daughters, for all black women around the world. And once again, we narrowly miss the mark.” observe-t-elle.
What about the vote of the Indian community?
Is it the fact of being a woman, or of being a black, mixed-race woman, that worked against Kamala Harris? Ntal Alimasi, consultant and specialist in governance, recalls that it is not only African-American men who voted in part against the Democratic candidate. This phenomenon, he suggests, was also found in the Indian community which represents 4.4 million people in the United States.
“I don’t know if you could say it’s because she’s a black woman. It could just be because she’s a woman because a lot of men voted for Trump. A lot of Indians voted for Donald Trump, that’s a question that bothered me. Did they vote for Donald Trump because Kamala Harris is a black woman or because she’s an Indian woman? is a question that people may need to revisit, to see exactly what dynamics were involved in this. That said, young women voted overwhelmingly for Kamala Harris, while men of color, as they were. calls here, seemed to direct their votes to Trump.”
A weakness from the start of the campaign?
For Jason Stearns, who teaches international relations at Simon Fraser University, it’s difficult to know what part of Kamala Harris’ identity worked against her in this presidential election. The teacher points out that almost 70% of white men without a university education voted for Donald Trump. “What worked against Harris is the fact that she is the vice president of a president who is very unpopular for several reasons, especially the economic situation. Inflation has hit Americans during these two , last three years, and I think that is mainly what contributed to the unpopularity of Joe Biden“, says Jason Stearns that there is “a kind of popular insurrection against the political elites in the United States. People are tired of politicians who play politics, who don’t seem to have an interest in the people. Even if he is an ultra-rich man, Trump positions himself as someone who is there against the institutions, against the American political elites“.
The Center for the Study of American Women in Politics (CAWP) deplores that once again, “a woman ran for the highest office in American politics, almost broke that barrier, but ultimately was not elected“.
