Kamala Harris and the Degradation of Women by Women
On a drive back from Palo Duro Canyon, in the final hours of a final family ‘quarantine’ vacation before the start of the school year, my phone dinged. A text popped up from a friend, and she had an “ask.” She explained that in the far northern suburb of San Antonio where she lived, she had seen something that disturbed her. A business she passed on her way to work had been broadcasting pro-Trump messages for as long as she had been living there. But the particular message that caught her eye on that day sent her reeling. Her text was cryptic. It did not offer the context right away. It just said something like: “Wanna make some good trouble?” I replied with something bland and noncommittal. “I’m intrigued,” I said. With that, my friend got me up to speed on the business and the sign which read “Kamala Harris is a Whorrible Choice for VP.” I sat up a little straighter. I read and re-read my friend’s explanation about the business (female owned and operated) and the sign, and all I said next was this: “I’m in. What do you want me to do?” What she wanted me to do was to write a letter asking the business owner to take down this sign, not so much because it was political, but because it was degrading. I wrote the letter. I never got any response. But I was proud of what I told her. And I was happy that my friend had challenged me to speak out. What follows is the letter I wrote. Perhaps it will inspire you too: When you see something, say something. Let’s all make good trouble.
August 16, 2020
Dear (name redacted),
I do so admire women like you who run their own businesses. It takes a kind of fortitude, grit and resilience to lead as you do, because even with all of the opportunities afforded us, women are still treated like second class citizens in our country. Women who own, run, or are in senior level positions at their companies are the bright stars that fill up the ever-widening constellation of role models for our daughters. They are the guiding lights that say, “you, too, can do this.” People like you offer a necessary support structure for girls who are coming up. You are a living, breathing exemplar of success, and you show young girls that the doors are wide open. You clear the path for them. You lift them up.
The Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution, ratified a century ago on August 18, 1920, granted women the right to vote. And with that right, women finally had a voice in our government, and a newfound ability to chart their own destinies. The women who put themselves on the line to achieve this right are heroes, for they cleared the path for the women who came after them.
However, as we recognize this monumental achievement, we should also remember that most black women would wait nearly five decades more to actually exercise that right. And this is because the 19th Amendment did not eliminate state laws that operated to keep black Americans from the polls via poll taxes and literacy tests, not to mention state supported violence and lynching. Black women (and men) were kept from the polls for decades, and some would argue they are still kept from the polls today by more subversive means such as voter suppression and gerrymandering.
The women who led the suffrage movement were white, and so when the 19th Amendment was ratified, the organizations that had led the movement disbanded. They left their African American sisters to fight for their rights on their own, even though many African American women had helped white voting rights activists to achieve their goals. Women always soar higher, and achieve greater things when they support other women. When white women failed to support black women, they failed all women. It didn’t have to be that way.
Women on average make about 80 cents on a man’s dollar. Despite all of our efforts to close the pay gap, we are still fighting to be paid what a man is worth. The gap is even wider for women of color. Black women working full-time and year-round earn around 63 cents on a white man’s dollar. This is according to the National Women’s Law Center. And you know what else the NWLC says? When you pay African-American women and women of color equal wages, “you are lifting not only millions of women, but millions of families out of poverty.” Think about this. When white women support black women and women of color, they not only help those women, but they help their whole families. And if you imagine what that might mean for our country, it isn’t a far stretch to see that women helping women is good for democracy. It creates a more stable, financially independent populace. It is an investment in the health and wealth of our nation.
As the President and CEO of (name redacted), I am sure you consider yourself to be a job creator. Your creativity and your work ethic have not only ensured your success, but the success of your employees and their families. So, you know from experience that each of us, as individuals, has the capacity to lift up others and to contribute to the health and wealth of our nation.
Of course, on the flip side of this, there is a hard truth. Sometimes, we do not lift each other up. Sometimes, we disparage or degrade each other, with the false belief that in doing so, we might feel better about ourselves. Of course, it never works that way. You never feel better about yourself when you degrade another. Yet sometimes we still persist doing so. I do not know if you are a woman of faith. But in my religion, we are called to “Tikkun Olam” which means to repair the world. I am a Jewish woman, and every time I am in synagogue, my rabbi asks our congregation what we have done to make the world better. There are times when I know that I’ve failed to make the world better. I’ve participated in gossip. I’ve been less generous than I could have been. I’ve been judgmental or critical of others.
I know that I am far from perfect. But these reminders that my life is best spent in the enterprise of helping, rather than harming my fellow human beings allow me to recalibrate and prioritize what is important. The call to Tikkun Olam — to repair the world, is not a call to avoid conflict or disagreement. Indeed, it is often through productive confrontation that we achieve greater harmony. But the key is to be constructive rather than destructive. We never have to tear others down in an effort to make our point, or share our beliefs, or argue for our particular position.
This brings me to you — a community leader, a Chief Executive Officer, a success story. When you make a choice to declare, on an advertising platform meant to market your business, that Kamala Harris is a “whorrible” choice for VP, you not only degrade her, but you degrade all women. You may disagree with Kamala Harris’s platform, her policy positions, and you even may dislike her personally. All of these positions are yours to occupy. But degrading Senator Harris, a woman who did not have the wind at her back, as many white women do, but instead, succeeded in spite of the odds against her, is simply indefensible. In dehumanizing her by comparing her to a sex worker, you dehumanize all women.
Senator Harris is a living, breathing example of what is possible in America. Her father, an immigrant from Jamaica, earned his Ph.D. in Economics (the very highest degree we offer to the most educated of our citizens) and taught for years at the University of Illinois where he molded young minds and prepared others to succeed as he had. Her mother, an immigrant from India, earned her MD/PhD, in Endocrinology and spent her life looking for a cure for brain cancer. Brain cancer!! Both of these Americans fulfilled the American promise. They brought their skills and talents to a land of opportunity, and, in finding success here they made the nation healthier and wealthier.
Kamala followed in her parents’ footsteps, and fulfilled their dreams for their progeny to succeed and make a contribution to the great nation that took them in. Senator Harris earned her law degree at UC Berkeley, and was elected attorney general of California in 2010 and again in 2014. In 2016 she became the second African-American woman and the first South Asian Woman to serve in the United States Senate.
Now, you must agree, her story is a uniquely American success story. Just a century ago, African-American women did not have the right to vote! You may not agree with Senator Harris’s politics, but she certainly is not a “whore” and is not deserving of the moniker. And of course, this begs the question, “who is?” Who is rightfully deserving of the moniker “whore?”
If you look up the word “whore” in any dictionary you will find a definition like this one from The American Heritage Dictionary:
1. A prostitute.
2. Often Offensive A person considered sexually promiscuous.
3. A person considered as having compromised principles for personal gain.
intr.v. whored, whor·ing, whores
1. To associate or have sexual relations with prostitutes or a prostitute.
2. To accept payment in exchange for sexual relations.
3. To compromise one’s principles for personal gain.
The word “whore” is of Middle-English derivation, and traces its roots back to the 12th century.
In no context that I can find does whore have any positive connotation. It is wholly a derogatory word — meant to denigrate the person to whom it is assigned. When a man calls a woman a “whore” it is despicable. But when a woman slut shames another woman, that is a very particular kind of offense. When a woman reduces another woman to a word that is suggestive of sexual promiscuity, we objectify not only that particular woman, but all women. In doing so, we turn the clock back to a time when women did not have voices or votes. It is a particularly sexist thing to call a woman a whore. If Joe Biden had chosen a male running mate, I suspect your commentary, as derisive as it might have been, would not have sexualized that person.
In the particular case of Senator Harris, your decision to call her “whorrible” is not only sexist, it is racist. The portrayal of black women as lascivious by nature is an enduring stereotype. The descriptive words associated with this stereotype include words like seductive, alluring, worldly, beguiling, tempting, and lewd. Historically, white women were portrayed as models of self-respect, self-control, and modesty — even sexual purity, but black women were often portrayed as innately promiscuous, even predatory. This depiction of black women is signified by the name Jezebel, which has decidedly negative connotations. The Mammy used to stand as the dominant stereotype of Black women in American popular culture. It has been replaced by the the stereotype of promiscuity signified by Jezebel. The Mammy image portrays black women as pathetic. The Jezebel image portrays them as predatory. I wonder if you would have thought twice about broadcasting a message on your sign that referred to Kamala Harris a “mammy” because it would have breached what you considered to be proper etiquette in 2020? Consider that your invocation of “whore” is the same thing. Rather than depicting her as a “mammy” — a black household servant whose only role is to clean and cook for white families — you have chosen to portray Senator Harris as a “whore.” You have reduced her to a sexual object, and have amplified a particularly racist stereotype that sees black women as sexually alluring, exotic and promiscuous.
I respectfully call on you, therefore, to cease from reifying such damaging and destructive stereotypes. I ask you, as a business leader, and as a success story, to amplify the successes of your sisters. You needn’t agree with Senator Harris. You needn’t vote for her ticket. But do not degrade her. Do not degrade yourself. We women need to stick together. If we do, we will move closer to fulfilling the promise of America. Kamala Harris and her parents are patriots. They build America up by making it a better place for all of us. I am asking you to be a patriot too.
Respectfully,
Jennifer
