Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Cartoon
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

Freedom Rider: Kamala Harris Destroyed Black Lives
Margaret Kimberley, BAR editor and senior columnist
16 Jan 2019
Freedom Rider: Kamala Harris Destroyed Black Lives
Freedom Rider: Kamala Harris Destroyed Black Lives

Harris has spent her career locking up Black and brown people. She should not be allowed to shake hands, kiss babies or walk into black churches without being taken to task.

“Kamala Harris is no friend of black people.”

California Senator Kamala Harris shows all the signs of announcing her candidacy for the Democratic Party presidential nomination. She is giving speeches in the right states, interviewing with the right talking heads, and recently published the obligatory memoir. She has been on the Democratic funder’scasting couch for nearly two years. Only the official announcement is missing.

But Harris is highly problematic for black voters, perhaps more so than any other candidate. She served as the district attorney of San Francisco and later as attorney general of California. In both roles she did everything in her power to support the mass incarceration systemand all of its foundations. That is what prosecutors do after all, but most of them don’t try to run for president and ask for black people’s votes.

Barack Obama was smart enough to choose a career path free of such red flags. As a community organizer,state legislator and United States senator he took a route that black people were able to support. Unlike Harris he was not actively involved in building the prison system, the institution that has done more damage to black people than any other.

“She did everything in her power to support the mass incarceration system and all of its foundations.”

The movement against mass incarceration and police killings is the human rights movement of our time.No one should be permitted to run for president with an expectation of black support if like Harris they played a role in worsening this ongoing humanitarian crisis.

As attorney general Harrisopposed legislation that would have required her office to investigate police shootings.When California was ordered to reduce prison overcrowding she argued against it. She said, accurately, that a low wage work force would go free. But that is the reason to diminish the carceral state, not an argument to continue it. She always sided with law enforcement, which means she acted against the interests of black people. She still does this in her memoir, These Truths We Hold: An American Journey. She says of mass incarceration, “I wanted to tear it down,” but the facts say otherwise.

“Harrisopposed legislation that would have required her office to investigate police shootings.”

One of her more disgraceful policies was to victim shame black mothers for their children’s school truancy. They were fined and when most of them could not pay, were put in jailand separated from their children.This action is the epitome of modern day chattel slavery and Harris cannot be given a pass.

She constantly hedges on issues of crime and punishment that have been so devastating. In one breath she states the obvious and says that police brutality exists. She then feels obliged to add that police, “deserve to be proud of their public service and commended for the way they do their jobs.” She now says, “We need to legalize marijuana and regulate it. And we need to expunge nonviolent marijuana-related offenses from the records of the millions of people who have been arrested and incarcerated so they can get on with their lives.” But as attorney general she actively opposed marijuana legalization.

“She always sided with law enforcement, which means she acted against the interests of black people.”

Harris shows her true colors before she even begins her campaign. She is either a cold hearted cynic who went along with the ever popular cult of being “tough on crime” or she harbors true animus towards black people. In either case she presents a great danger.

The 2020 election is already presenting dangers to black voters. The understandable desire to defeat Trump is complicated by the role of the ever duplicitous Democratic Party. The racist divide keeps black people trapped in the party that is only slightly less racist. Hillary Clinton spoke openly of “super predator” youth who must “be brought to heel.” Bill Clinton made Republican fantasies come true by ending a 60 year long right to public assistance. Obama negated the very idea of a black polity when he wasn’t telling jokes about an imaginary cousin Pookie. The only thing worse than accepting this long history of Democratic treachery would be electing someone who openly destroyed the lives of black men, women and children.

“As attorney general she actively opposed marijuana legalization.”

Kamala Harris is no friend of black people and she should be treated as such. She should not be allowed to shake hands, kiss babies or walk into black churches without being taken to task. We have seen this movie and we know how it ends. A black candidate with all the right credentials makes the case for race pride but the people end up with nothing to show for their adoration.

It can be argued that Obama’s presidency left black Americans worse off than before he took office. The already weakened black radical tradition was jettisoned in favor of representational politics that was devoid of any tangible political benefit. The only thing worse would be to elect another corporate backed Democrat ready to fool us with false notions of race pride. We must say no to Kamala Harris.

Margaret Kimberley’s Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR, and is widely reprinted elsewhere. She maintains a frequently updated blog as well at http://freedomrider.blogspot.com . Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgendaReport.com.

COMMENTS?

Please join the conversation on Black Agenda Report's Facebook page at http://facebook.com/blackagendareport

Or, you can comment by emailing us at [email protected]

2020 Election

Trending

Cory Booker Hates Public Schools
Bill Cosby Should Have Been Denounced by Black America Long Ago
The Black Wall Around Barack Obama: Who Does It Protect Him Against?
How Complacency, Complicity of Black Misleadership Class Led to Supreme Court Evisceration of the Voting Rights Act
Supreme Court Kneecaps Voting Rights Act: The Real News Network Talks to Bruce A. Dixon
Ohio’s Junk Mail Trick Led the Supreme Court to Approve Jim Crow Voter Purge

Related Stories

Kamala Harris First Won Office As ‘Law and Order’ Candidate
Lee Fang
Kamala Harris First Won Office As ‘Law and Order’ Candidate
13 February 2019
“Harris’s first campaign reflected familiar tactics in an era of booming mass incarceration.”
The Left Must Finally Break With the Democrats
A Discussion with Nick Brana
The Left Must Finally Break With the Democrats
13 February 2019
It is vitally important to create a mass-based and corporate-free party of working people.
Ocasio-Cortez, Sanders, Trump and the State of Imperial Decline
Glen Ford , BAR executive editor
Ocasio-Cortez, Sanders, Trump and the State of Imperial Decline
07 February 2019
Bernie Sanders’ anticipated second run for the presidency is the 6-ton elephant in the Democratic boardroom.
“How I Lost by Hillary Clinton,” a Book Review
Ann Garrison , BAR contributor
“How I Lost by Hillary Clinton,” a Book Review
06 February 2019
Rich and manipulative people like Hillary Clinton and her DNC cohorts were defeated by their own emails.
Cory Booker Hates Public Schools
Eric Blanc
Cory Booker Hates Public Schools
06 February 2019
Cory Booker rose to prominence as a fanatical backer of school privatization, yet poses as a friend of public education and teachers.
When Politicians Use Marginalized People as Human Shields
Teodrose Fikre
When Politicians Use Marginalized People as Human Shields
30 January 2019
Republicans advertise their institutional bigotry, but Democrats obscure their malicious actions with identity politics.
Bernie Sanders vs Kamala the Jailer and Her Corporate Backers
Glen Ford , BAR executive editor
Bernie Sanders vs Kamala the Jailer and Her Corporate Backers
24 January 2019
The best thing that can happen in 2020 is for Bernie Sanders to do fantastically in the primaries and be cheated out of the nomination, once again,
Evoking Muckrakers: Hannah Giorgis’s Devastating Critique of Senator Kamala Harris
Teodrose Fikre
Evoking Muckrakers: Hannah Giorgis’s Devastating Critique of Senator Kamala Harris
16 January 2019
Kamala Harris’s memoir reads nothing like her actual record of locking up the poor and giving impunity to the rich.
Hillary Clinton 2020 is Malcolm X’s American Nightmare on Steroids
Danny Haiphong , BAR contributor
Hillary Clinton 2020 is Malcolm X’s American Nightmare on Steroids
12 December 2018
Clinton’s reemergence is a dangerous reminder of who she really is: a “too big to fail” parasite of finance capital and the war machine.
Cory Booker Blames Black America for Trump, But Only Has Himself to Blame
Danny Haiphong , BAR contributor
Cory Booker Blames Black America for Trump, But Only Has Himself to Blame
01 May 2018
“Democrats like Booker have blamed everyone but themselves for Trump’s victory.”

More Stories


  • los angeles school strike 2019
    Behind the News with Doug Henwood
    Los Angeles Teachers Use the Old Successful Organizing Methods
    14 Feb 2019
    Like the 2006 strike of 30,000 NYC transit workers, and the 2012 strike of 30,000 Chicago teachers, the 2019 Los Angeles teacher strike made the lives of tens and hundreds of thousands of ordinary
  • Pelosi Sabotages Medicare for All, But Corporate Media Pretend Not to Notice
    Glen Ford , BAR executive editor
    Pelosi Sabotages Medicare for All, But Corporate Media Pretend Not to Notice
    14 Feb 2019
    When the top Democrat secretly plots to subvert a proposal supported by the vast majority of her party, that’s supposed to be news -- unless the corporate media decide otherwise.
  • all options on the table
    Raymond Nat Turner , BAR poet-in-residence
    If all options are on the table…
    13 Feb 2019
    If “all options are on the table” Let’s hear filters usurping skull and crossbones drinking water 400 times before it flows from a single faucet
  • Freedom Rider: Black Voters Used to Destroy Bernie Sanders
    Margaret Kimberley , BAR editor and senior columnist
    Freedom Rider: Black Voters Used to Destroy Bernie Sanders
    13 Feb 2019
    The ever-rightward moving Democrats are using their most reliable constituency to thwart Sanders.
  • Confronting the U.S./EU/NATO Axis of Domination
    Ajamu Baraka , BAR editor and columnist
    Confronting the U.S./EU/NATO Axis of Domination
    13 Feb 2019
    Democrats may hate Trump, but they join in white supremacist solidarity with his aggression against the mostly non-white people of Venezeula.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us