"We have been so patient and loyal ... and what has it gotten us? We want our full share now." ~ Shirley Chisholm When critics and protestors attem
“We have been so patient and loyal … and what has it gotten us? We want our full share now.” ~ Shirley Chisholm
When critics and protestors attempt to tear down Vice President Kamala Harris, they unintentionally reveal how deeply racism and misogyny remain woven into political discourse. Their attacks are not exposing her flaws — they are exposing our culture’s own.
Here’s why:
1️⃣ Because Black Women Know What It’s Like to Be Blamed for Things We Didn’t Create
The conflict in the Middle East predates Kamala Harris by decades — long before she was born, long before she held any power. Yet some people insist on holding her personally responsible for decisions and histories she did not write.
This mirrors what many Black women experience daily: being held accountable for problems they didn’t cause while being denied the authority to solve them.
2️⃣ Because Misogyny and Racism Are Working in Tandem
When powerful women — especially Black women — rise, they become symbols.
And too often, they become scapegoats.
Critics who once ignored war, poverty, and policy now feel emboldened to shout her name with misplaced rage. It isn’t about the issue — it’s about control.
3️⃣ Because People Expect Black Women to Fix Everything, Even While Breaking Our Backs
Historically, when this nation — and the world — falls into crisis, people turn to Black labor, Black creativity, and Black emotional endurance.
They demand that we heal, lead, build, comfort, and perform miracles — while they undermine the very systems that sustain us.
We are less able to support domestic violence, sexual assault, and humanitarian causes because so many are drained from carrying everyone’s expectations.
4️⃣ Because Critics Are Practicing “All-or-Nothing” Thinking
Too many people today operate with impartial all-or-nothing thinking errors — believing that disagreement means dehumanization, or that if someone doesn’t act exactly as they wish, she’s automatically corrupt. (And still manage to entirely miss the truly corrupt)
It’s not moral clarity; it’s emotional immaturity dressed up as righteousness.
5️⃣ Because Some People Refuse to Learn Civics
Understanding how American government actually works is not optional especially when you aspire to be an “activist”.
The Vice President does not make foreign policy. She cannot single-handedly end a war or start one.
Yet, those shouting the loudest often refuse to learn what her constitutional role even is.
6️⃣ Because We Have Not Recovered — as a Nation or a People
Puerto Rico still has not recovered from devastating storms.
The CDC remains under pressure, and our national health is fragile.
People are exhausted, financially and emotionally.
When individuals who are already drained are attacked for not doing “enough” for others, it exposes a cruel truth: people still confuse exploitation with compassion.
7️⃣ Because Other Crises Are Conveniently Ignored
Sudan.
Ethiopia.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Myanmar.
Yemen.
Palestinians, Israelis, Haitians, Armenians — people all over the world suffer in ways that rarely make headlines.
Selective outrage isn’t justice; it’s performance.
8️⃣ Because The Loudest Voices Don’t Always Know the Most
Many shouting on the internet or in the streets don’t know how government decisions are made — and they will not listen to those who do.
They’re powered by algorithms, not understanding.
By attention, not accuracy.
9️⃣ Because Black Women Carry a Different Kind of Wisdom
When Black women observe all this — the noise, the projections, the ignorance — we recognize it instantly.
We’ve lived it in our workplaces, schools, churches, and homes.
Kamala Harris’s calm amid the chaos is the same calm many of us have learned for health, wellness, sanity- survival.
🔟 Because She Represents What Terrifies People Most:
A Black woman in power.
Not as a symbol, not as an assistant, but as a decision-maker.
And yes — historically, men have always been the primary decision-makers of war and genocide. That’s not an accusation; it’s a historical record.
✨ The Bigger Truth
Kamala Harris’s critics may think they are weakening her, but in truth, they are revealing the nation’s unresolved issues with race, gender, and accountability.
The more she’s attacked, the more people who look like her — and who understand struggle — see themselves in her.
She’s not becoming less relatable.
She’s becoming a mirror.
“Some members of Congress are among the best actors in the world.” ~ Shirley Chisholm
“The Constitution they wrote was designed to protect the rights of white, male citizens. As there were no black Founding Fathers, there were no founding mothers – a great pity, on both counts. It is not too late to complete the work they left undone. Today, here, we should start to do so.” ~ Shirley Chisholm
“At present, our country needs women’s idealism and determination, perhaps more in politics than anywhere else.” ~ Shirley Chisholm
“Health is a human right, not a privilege to be purchased.” ~ Shirley Chisholm
“I ran for the presidency, despite hopeless odds, to demonstrate the sheer will and refusal to accept the status quo.” ~ Shirley Chisholm
“America has the laws and the material resources it takes to insure justice for all its people. What it lacks is the heart, the humanity.” ~ Shirley Chisholm
“Tremendous amounts of talent are lost to our society just because that talent wears a skirt.” ~ Shirley Chisholm
“Laws will not eliminate prejudice from the hearts of human beings. But that is no reason to allow prejudice to continue to be enshrined in our laws – to perpetuate injustice through inaction.” ~ Shirley Chisholm
“Women must become revolutionary. This cannot be evolution but revolution.” ~ Shirley Chisholm
“We have never seen health as a right. It has been conceived as a privilege, available only to those who can afford it. This is the real reason the American health care system is in such a scandalous state.” ~ Shirley Chisholm
“As things are now, no one can tell to whom members of Congress are responsible, except that it does not often appear to be to the people. Everyone else is represented in Washington by a rich and powerful lobby, it seems. But there is no lobby for the people.” ~ Shirley Chisholm
“It is not heroin or cocaine that makes one an addict, it is the need to escape from a harsh reality. There are more television addicts, more baseball and football addicts, more movie addicts, and certainly more alcohol addicts in this country than there are narcotics addicts.” ~ Shirley Chisholm
“The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of females begins when the doctor says, ‘It’s a girl.'” ~ Shirley Chisholm
“Congress seems drugged and inert most of the time… its idea of meeting a problem is to hold hearings or, in extreme cases, to appoint a commission.” ~ Shirley Chisholm
“As there were no black Founding Fathers, there were no founding mothers – a great pity, on both counts.” ~ Shirley Chisholm
“Of my two `handicaps,’ being female put more obstacles in my path than being black.” ~ Shirley Chisholm
“One distressing thing is the way men react to women who assert their equality: their ultimate weapon is to call them unfeminine. They think she is anti-male; they even whisper that she’s probably a lesbian.” ~ Shirley Chisholm
So not much has changed but the numbers on the calendar.