Enter the Democratic National Convention of 2020.
The event itself took place remotely, socially distanced and Zoom’ed and patch-worked bits and testimonials edited together to work up a Covid era semblance of a long American tradition.
Both Barack and Michelle Obama’s speeches were stately and historic, acquitted with their usual eloquence. Watching the 44th president speak so openly and plainly about the failings of the 45th was a hallmark. It was hard to remember a time when the leader of the free world could speechify so well, and Barack reminded us all of what we’d been missing.
The Democrats banded together to present a message of unity, pulling out all their big guns to rally behind Joe Biden’s bid to oust the sitting prez, including Alexandria Ocasia-Cortez, Bernie Sanders, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, as well as an array of Republican politicians who’d chosen to switch sides, even temporarily, to implement a transfer of office.
It was Kamala Harris, or rather the whiteboy reactions to her, that was most worthy of mention in these pages concerning the DNC. Again, I must leave studying the historical watermarks of the Californian Senator’s rise to the Vice-Presidential nomination, being the first Black woman and first South Asian woman ever appointed to candidacy, to authors and journalists of color, as that is their right and purview.
What I can do, is discuss subsequent whiteboy reactions to her ascendancy, which, as you might imagine, bears scrutiny. As expected, the validity of Harris’ ‘Blackness,’ as if there is such a thing, was brought up by alt-right media outlets and their followers, many of whom had the audacity to challenge whether she was worthy enough to warrant what they deemed to be ‘proper blackness.’
Whatever the hell that is.
No. We know exactly what that is for whiteboys, unfortunately.