I do not think Vice President Kamala Harris should debate former President Donald Trump on Tuesday. Though I understand she has to, I do not like it. Not because I do not think she can win. I know she can. My issue is how ugly, condescending and misogynistic Trump will probably be.
Credit: handout
Credit: handout
In columns and on social media before the June debate, I implored President Joe Biden not to do it. Not because I didn’t think he was up to it (as it turned out, he was not) but because I believe deeply in Article II of the U.S. Constitution. I believe that the presidency is more than one person; it is an institution. It symbolizes honor, dignity, responsibility, strength and great power.
I thought then and I think now that debating a man who incited insurrection at the nation’s capital on Jan. 6, 2021 — and who is a four-times indicted citizen, twice-impeached former president and a convicted felon — is beneath the dignity of that office and of our countrymen. But here we are.
And now that Harris is the Democratic nominee, I do not like the visual of the highest-ranking elected woman in the history of the United States standing on a stage with an adjudicated rapist, admitted assaulter of women and adulterer.
I wince every time I see white male pundits saying how Harris must comport herself. She should not correct Trump or “put Trump in his place” lest she be considered too aggressive, they say. Many refer to her “Mr. Vice President, I am speaking” remark to then-Vice President Mike Pence in their 2020 vice presidential debate.
But Pence is no Trump. Trump is a misogynist who seems to love to attack Black women in particular. Consider his former aide Omarosa Manigault Newman, whom he called a dog. He has belittled powerful women by calling them “nasty,” “horse-face,” “crazy” and “low-IQ,” and he has attacked Black and brown women in Congress (the Squad comes to mind) and Black women journalists in the White House press corps during his presidency.
After Harris’ Atlanta rally in July, Trump accused her of developing a new Southern accent. Like clockwork, the conservative media jumped in to normalize Trump’s misogynoir. At the Tuesday White House briefing, Peter Doocy of Fox News asked press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre if she knew why Harris was talking with a Southern accent. (Yes, he really asked this).
The ridiculous question was dismissed by the press secretary, but it goes to a deeper issue of how clueless most white Americans are about something we Black people call “code-switching” or “shifting.”
Shifting is a term based on the 2004 African American Women’s Voices Project and the book “Shifting: The Double Lives of Black Women in America” by Charise Jones. Black people “shift” by altering their speech. They shift “white” for corporate America and shift “Black” when with family and friends. And they shift “inward” as they deal with the stereotypes and racism in their daily life in America. And, sometimes, they “shift” by finally fighting back.
And that’s the shift Harris should make. Push back, fact-check Trump and object. No apologies. No restraint. She does not have to take his nonsense. She can show that women can be tough, smart and feminine (if they choose) all at once. She does not need to smile and be a demure, compliant woman.
When Trump acts out, she should turn to him and say, “Are you OK? I’m asking for a concerned nation.” When he is incoherent, unkind, spewing craziness or overtalking her. she just needs to ask again, “Sir, are you OK?” It will unmoor him. She doesn’t have to let him derail the debate with lies, misogyny and hate.
Powerful, smart women like Harris do not have to smile and accept racist or misogynistic behavior when some enraged male is insulting, humiliating and attacking them. We don’t have to tell our daughters, granddaughters, sisters and nieces to “be the bigger person.” We don’t have to trot out the tired excuse that “boys will be boys.”
That just won’t cut it anymore. The days of worrying about coming off as angry, bossy or disrespectful are over. Men like Trump better learn to deal with it.
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