In the season of a national tragedy, there was considerable excitement in the United States on Tuesday. There may be hope yet for the blacks and not the least in the context of the mounting racist mayhem over the past few years, notably during the time of Barack Obama’s presidency.
With Joe Biden now the presumptive Democratic nominee, there was an exceptionally robust wave of black support when black voters in South Carolina and throughout the South overwhelmingly sided with him. Indeed, black voters and leaders are pressing for him to pick a black woman as his running mate.
Ergo, the two terribly critical issues at stake for the next Vice-President are the colour of the skin and the gender. While Biden has let it be known that he is committed to picking a woman as VP, he has in the process addressed but a facet of the issue. Black voters and leaders say he needs to go further and pick a black woman.
They argue that Biden’s success ~ and that of the Democratic Party in the larger perspective ~ depends on black citizens turning out to vote in November. They want a tangible return for their loyalty, not just a warm “thank you” for showing up on Election Day. Horrific memories of Ferguson and St Bernadino must still rankle. The assumption of authority by a black woman Vice-President will be a definitive moment in America’s legislative history.
More basically, the blacks want an acknowledgement of the many years of support they have given the Democratic Party, and Biden seems poised to signify a watershed development in an otherwise direly tragic phase in US democracy. The eventual choice of the running mate is as yet unclear. Biden has been unusually vocal about the people he would consider to be a prospective second-in-command.
He has mentioned two black women, Senator Kamala Harris of California, and Stacey Abrams, the former Democratic nominee for the office of Georgia’s Governor. Other black women, including Republican Val Demings of Florida and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, have also been mentioned.
In parallel, Biden is believed to be considering several white women, pre-eminently Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Michigan Governor, Gretchen Whitmer. Biden’s choice will be as sensitive as it will be politically pregnant. It is an opportunity for Biden to recognize the political force of black women.
The Democratic nominee needs to make it clear that the party realises the significance of the moment, notably that black women are the bedrock of an electorally successful and effective Democratic Party at every level. Coronavirus has had a disparate impact on black Americans, and they are anxious to relate to the new Vice-President.
A black woman on the Vice-President’s chair will mean that this segment’s voice will be heard, or so they believe.