Last Sunday, I had brunch with a sorority sister on a beautiful day in Harlem. We had a great time catching up, the sangria was unlimited, my phone was off, and I was present. Harlem summer vibes can’t be beat.
I saw President Biden’s post on not running for re-election three minutes after I turned my phone back on. Flabbergasted is an understatement. It’s what a lot of people, including me wanted, but I didn’t think he’d actually do it. Now what?
30 minutes later, Biden announced he was endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris. That instantaneously put the battery in the backs of most Democrats (self included!) and we started moving like our Crocs were in sports mode. I and thousands of others immediately made our first donations of this election cycle to Act Blue to show support for the decision. We understand the assignment, because we understand everything that is at stake.
Whereas the day before felt hopeless, there was suddenly hope. Elected Democrats fell in line in an unusally efficient “one band, one sound” movement. Being a Democrat is a source of almost neverending despair — much like being a fan of the New York Knicks.
I’m old enough to remember President Obama’s campaigns and elections. From the moment the networks called him as the winner of the race in 2008, to he and Michelle stepping out on the stage in Chicago’s Grant Park with Sasha and Malia, I was worried for their safety.
Before we could ever talk about the man’s policies, many of us were working overtime to defend the family from vile, veiled and sometimes not so subtle racist attacks on and offline.
16 years later and the world has gotten even more toxic. I’m older and of all the fights there are to fight, I didn’t want to do this one again. Vice President Harris is undoubtedly qualified, but I knew that whatever Obama had received in an allegedly better era, was going to be even worse for her.
Additionally, the same concerns I had with some of Biden’s foreign policy, remain. People who are suffering right now because of our policies, don’t have the privilege of waiting until we can sort out our politics. It makes me feel helpless and frustrated. My internal cognitive dissonance meter is desperately spinning out of control and I’m having a hard time reconciling it all.
Later that same day, another sorority sister texted me a link to a Zoom that was being organized by WinWithBlackWomen to show for support for Harris. I tried multiple times to log on, but couldn’t get in. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was missing out on history being made. By midnight, reports were starting to come in that approximately 44,000 Black women, Sisters, had come together to raise over $1.5 million for the Harris campaign. Hearing about the energy and the magic from those who were in the virtual room was inspiring.
If enough wasn’t already happening, my sorority will be forever linked to this historic moment in time, when on Wednesday, Vice President Harris visited our biennial international conference in Indianapolis. As everything had changed since she first committed to speaking at the event, she could’ve understandably cancelled, but, she came and brought the eyes of the world.
Zeta Phi Beta Sorority’s Grand Boule
Meanwhile, on Monday, July 22, authorities in Sangamon County, Illinois released horrific bodycam footage of 36-year old Sonya Massey being senselessly murdered by an officer on July 6. She called them for help because she thought she heard an intruder and 30 minutes later, one of them had killed her.
At home and abroad, how we live… how we die… an endless cycle of violence, access to and usage of weapons, and callous disregard for certain lives is all connected.
We’ve been here repeatedly. We demand a permanent ceasefire. Stop killing us.
Related:
- Sonya Massey called 911 for help, 30 minutes later police officer shot her dead: Timeline
- Vigils Planned Across the Nation for Sonya Massey
Read & Watch
Read:
- Visit vote.org to register to vote or to check your status. Ohio’s voter purge “disproportionately targets voters of color”, civil rights organizations say
- “Race will no longer matter, or sex, or gender, or orientation of any description. How we will survive will be our only concern, and who will be with us.” — We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For, Alice Walker (2006)
- “Nothing changes instantaneously: in a gradually heating bathtub you’d be boiled to death before you knew it.” — The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood (1985)
- “That’s all anybody can do right now. Live. Hold out. Survive. I don’t know whether good times are coming back again. But I know that won’t matter if we don’t survive these times.”― Parable of the Sower, Octavia E. Butler (1993)
Watch: In the words of poet Maya Angelou, “when someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.”
Kimfinite Possibilities 
Right when I read your last blog the news dropped and i immediately thought about you and where you were when you heard it and what your thoughts would be.
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