When Kamala Harris was elected US vice-president, I cheered along with every other black person, especially women, I knew. And even those I didn’t know personally – because we were all rooting for her.
I even wrote a Facebook post reflecting that the moment was significant for me as a black woman, although I was fully cognisant of the politics behind her appointment.
You see, there is the very real and very necessary point that representation matters, not only to us as adults, but also to children growing up in a world that doesn’t reflect them and resists making space for them.
Representation matters in all spheres of our global society because it is the thread with which we are sewn together. It enables us to find resonance with each other and, most critically, with our humanity.
When I was a young child, the idea that a black American woman could become vice-president, never mind president, did not exist. It was unthinkable and the world reinforced this in the types of jobs or positions that were available to certain races.
It was deemed natural that white people, men in particular, were predestined to be in leadership positions such as presidents of countries, captains of industry and multinational corporations, world-renowned academics, successful entertainers.
They played the role of paternalistic overseer of the other “poor” races that were predestined never quite to reach such heights.
This is something Rudyard Kipling called “the white man’s burden” in his poem with the same title – that of having to manage the affairs of those who are less developed than white people.
I won’t dwell too much on Kipling and his politics because it is a well-worn path. I mention it purely to make the point that, even today, this may be the situation we are in as Americans weigh up whether their best option is to go with a Kamala Harris or Donald Trump presidency, despite the latter being a megalomaniac with extreme right-wing, racist and sexist tendencies.
Read more: How 44,000 black women galvanised support for Kamala Harris on Sunday night
What happens in the US does not happen in isolation, and now that President Joe Biden has been forced to drop out of the race, it is vital that people understand what the changes that are afoot in America are about. They are not just about the country’s domestic or foreign or economic policies – they are an indication of where the world’s politics and power are shifting towards.
If Trump wins the election again, it means a shift towards a dangerous politics that is regressive, repressive and utterly committed to greed and violent power, as opposed to democracy, human rights and thriving as a collective.
Read more: Kamala vs very, very old Trump – with Biden gone, it is now a real race
One would think Harris is the obvious choice. Her character, qualifications and commitment to the principles of democracy and the betterment of all Americans should make her a shoo-in for the position of president of the US.
Representation matters and what Harris represents should resonate with those who value living in a world that has room for all of us and not just a privileged few.
What we should be asking is how we got here and what is to be done to set things right. DM
This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.
