nightmare like Donald Trump. Representation is
not everything. But it is absolutely something.
Still, white liberals sometimes make the mistake
of thinking symbolic gestures—like adding a Black
woman to the ticket—will be enough. Biden and
many white liberals have already begun to speak in
the language of “healing” and “unifying” the na-
tion, even as our wounds are still fresh. Trump’s
entire term has been marked by sexism and racism,
yet more than 70 million Americans voted for him,
in many cases not despite his abhorrent beliefs but
because of them. The threat of injury from angry
Trump voters remains. These Americans have no in-
terest in being unified with a white man who would
give a Black woman a shot at breaking the glass ceil-
ing. And as a Black woman who is horrified at the
overwhelming levels of support Trump received,
I have no interest in any leadership that tells me
I should want to be unified with people who think
as the other side does.
One Black woman—historic, dope, progressive,
passionate and competent though she is—is not a
sufficient salve for the festering wounds of Ameri-
can racism and sexism. In fact, it would be unfair to
ask Harris to shoulder the burden of a unifying proj-
ect that began 150 years ago. But
Black people are often expected
to console and unify angry white
folks when we make it to leadership
positions. To riff on James Baldwin,
it is “the price of the ticket.” Har-
ris will be in the difficult position
of serving as chief confidante and
loyal adviser to Biden, chief translator of Black an-
guish to people in power, and chief diversity officer
for a nation that thinks that title is the most appro-
priate way to leverage Black women’s formidable
insights about centuries of racial injustice. Mean-
while, Black communities will demand that she rep-
resent an actual progressive agenda on race and gen-
der justice. In the end, her job as Vice President is to
support Biden in delivering on the policy promises
he made, and push him to do more. Her presence
begins rather than ends a conversation about what
America owes Black women.
It Is not hyperbole to say that America has
been snatched back from the brink of destruction
primarily because of the energy Harris brought to
the ticket, and the fervent organizing of Southern
Black women like Stacey Abrams, who launched
Fair Fight, and LaTosha Brown, who co-founded
Black Voters Matter. It will take the political ma-
chinery that Abrams has built in Georgia to deliver
Biden a Congress that he can actually work with to
get things done. Because Biden would not be the
President- elect without Black voters in cities like
Detroit, Philadelphia and Atlanta, and Latinx voters
in Nevada and Arizona, he must offer real plans that
would improve the economic, social and political
conditions of Black and brown people. Simply di-
versifying the country’s leadership without priori-
tizing the well-being of the people who elected him
would make Harris an empty symbol. She deserves
for her tenure and presence to mean more than that.
What other Black women in leadership deserve
is a range of seats at the table throughout the Biden
Administration, and what everyday Black women—
the Democratic Party’s most committed voting
bloc, who made this victory possible— deserve is
increased hope, an end to COVID-19, economic op-
portunity, affordable health care and reproductive
access, and safe communities in which to live and
raise their children. What I am asking is for America
to sit with what it truly means to ask Black women
to energize the Democratic Party and save the coun-
try. We don’t want commemorative plaques; we
want comprehensive policy.
Harris’ victory is a feminist one. No, she is not
a radical feminist decrying capitalism or demand-
ing abolition of prisons. But she did just strike a
serious blow to one of patriarchy’s most endur-
ing monuments, America’s previously all-white
vice- presidential establishment.
She did so as a progressive candi-
date with a commitment to fight-
ing racism and sexism in policy
and leadership. Her presence as
both a Black and a South Asian
woman is a tip of the hat to the
best of women-of-color solidarity
movements that have existed in this country since
the beginning, and her presence is a mandate for
women of color, Black women in particular, to ac-
knowledge and use our political power to push for
the things that matter to us.
During Barack Obama’s presidency, we spent
far too much time being enamored with the sym-
bolism of his victory and far too little time de-
manding that he serve his people-of-color con-
stituents. It is our job as citizens to make Harris’
vice presidency count. That means that we must
be willing to fiercely defend her in the face of racist
and sexist attacks that impede her ability to do her
work, and we must be willing to remind her that
she works for us.
Her presence represents the maturation of Black
women as political actors in a nation-state that
forced us to sit at the kiddie table over and over
again. Now that we have made space for ourselves
at America’s main table, let’s go ahead and take over.
The menu is ours to plan; the additional invites are
ours to send; the flavor is ours to bring.
Cooper is the author of Eloquent Rage: A Black
Feminist Discovers Her Superpower
REPRESENTATION IS
NOT EVERYTHING.
BUT IT IS ABSOLUTELY
SOMETHING
ELECTION
2020
