Kamala Harris faces extreme political challenges ahead of the 2024 presidential election, and as the first female Black and South Asian vice president, she is being criticized by both Republicans and Democrats alike.
The former Republican South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said of Harris, “We have to make sure we win this, because the thought of Kamala Harris being president should send a chill up every American spine.”
Former President Donald Trump — who is running against Biden in 2024 — attacked and mocked Harris during an interview with Tucker Carlson, calling her “weird” and “not a president.”
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According to The New York Times Magazine, Democrats have also insulted Harris and questioned her skill set. A top Democratic consultant reportedly claimed that the vice president “has a little Ron DeSantis in her.” Another Democrat donor said that Harris serving as the vice president “is not ideal, but there’s a hope she can rise to the occasion” as Biden’s running mate.
One particularly petty microaggression revealed in the article noted the amount of time that the country’s first Black vice president spends grooming her hair.
“Sometimes the arguments against her feel more petty,” said the article. “A member of Harris’ staff remarked on the amount of downtime the vice president schedules on trips, which includes an inordinate amount of time dedicated to hair care.”
The New York Times article also claimed that a group of female Black Democrats “are increasingly becoming incensed with how she’s being treated. Their disgust is as close as you’ll get to hearing it from Harris herself.”
Part of the article was shared on X, the platform formally known as Twitter, by user Caitlin Legacki, with a caption noting that the staffer undermined and violated their boss.
“From a staffing perspective, this is unforgivable. It’s such a violation, it completely undermines the boss and completely misreads the reality of being a woman in the public eye. There are plenty of valid critiques to discuss but this ain’t it,” wrote Legacki.
“The more I think about this the more I want to scream. That paragraph alone made me want to go in and start flipping over desks,” she added.
One X user replied, “Yeah, it’s also racist as hell.”
Other X users were equally unnerved by the staffer commenting on the vice president’s grooming habits and aptly noted that proper Black hair care takes time.
“She’s half Black and our hair care takes time,” noted another X user. “How much time is subjective? So saying it’s ‘inordinate’ when the ‘ordinary’ or usual VP is a white man with shorter hair? It’s false. It’s VERY ORDINARY for women, curly-haired women, and especially Black women. Update the standards.”
Another X user shared a meme of Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn with messy hair at the Supreme Court confirmation hearing for Ketanji Brown Jackson last year and the caption, “If Kamala Harris showed up to work looking like this it would be on the front page of every newspaper far and wide. FOH with that s—t.”
“A Black woman especially. Her hair requires time or else she would be dragged for being unkempt or not serious. This is clearly a white staffer,” added another user.
One user replied that the “racial undertones are deafening.”
“Yet if she went natural, all hell would break loose,” added one.
The staffer’s comment is a reminder that the nation’s first Black first lady, Michelle Obama, never felt comfortable wearing braids while her husband was in office because she feared that America wasn’t ready to see her natural hair. Obama made the revelation while promoting her book, “The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times” in Washington, D.C., back in 2022.
“You know as first lady, I did not wear braids,” said Obama. “Being the first Black — yeah, we had to ease up on the people. Cause I thought about it! I was like, ‘it would be easier … Nope, nope, they’re not ready.’”
