Here we are. As I write this we’re less than 48 hours from the Great Harris-Trump debate. And the closer we get, the more the talk around the pundit and analyst table turns to the expectations.
And it’s pretty much as you’d expect. As I have written, and others have stated, and now they’re piling on like a football fumble, as long as Traitor Tot is zipped up, doesn’t trip and crack his head on the rostrum, and doesn’t drool down his chin, he has exceeded the bargain expectations before him.
But when you get the Harris side of the equation, it’s really starting to supremely piss me off. It started with a trickle, but over the last couple of days, the drumbeat keeps getting louder. Women reporters and analysts, mostly African American women, are sounding an increasingly discordant note.
What they say is that, in addition to Kamala Harris being calm, composed, knowledgeable, forceful, and prosecutorial, she has an extra monkey on her back. At all times, and in all circumstances, she must constantly avoid giving the impression of being an angry black woman.
What. Is. Up. With. This. Sh*t?! Are you telling me that after 150 years of emancipation, a black woman finally has the right to speak directly to the Massa, but she had better be polite and obsequious, or she’s in deep sh*t?!
You know what I say? F*CK THAT! A few cycles ago when that High Plains Grifter out west body slammed a British reporter down on a table for asking a question he didn’t like, or that GOP NY House weasel angrily confronted a reporter on the balcony of the House, and threatened to Break him in half like a little boy and throw him over the railing, there was tongue clucking and head wagging, but no actual condemnation. The standard wisdom seemed to be that they were Alpha Males protecting their turf. You know what? If I’ve got children to protect, I’ll take an Alpha Bitch over an Alpha Male any day of the week. They’re merciless.
And that sick, racist old trope is already starting to be torn down. A few months ago, Machine Gun Marjie was spouting some racist sh*t in a committee hearing, and Democratic firebrand Jasmine Crockett leaned forward into her microphone, looked right at Greene and intoned in a loud, aggressive voice, Baby Girl, you don’t even wanna go there! A black woman’s clarion call that you’re about to get your ass kicked. Greene shut up and sat down. And Crockett was treated like a returning hero. So that trope is already getting old.
That being said, there is a purely tactical reason for Harris to bare her claws. To be sure, she doesn’t want to, nor does she need to be shrill, screeching nor abusive. But the McGuffin is that it is Traitor Tot himself who gave Kamala Harris permission to turn him into a California Roll.
His Lowness has been running around all over the place, bellowing to the clouds that Kamala Harris is too weak and too vacillating to take on the world’s strong men like Xi, Kim Jung Un, and Putin. After all, how can you trust a woman who laughs like a loon to have the steel of spine necessary to stand up to the hard asses?
So I ask you. What could more show her strength of spine, her decisive spirit and her calm reasoning than to neatly fillet El Pendejo Presidente in front of a nationwide live television audience. Think that will make the impression to the bad asses that she isn’t about to put up with any of their sh*t?
If you haven’t already seen it, you should look for the YouTube video of Kamala Harris in her debate against Vice President Mike Pence when he interrupted her mid-sentence. She gave him a stare colder than anyone has seen outside of a freezing chamber, and with the voice of a 4th grade teacher letting a student know he was out of line said, Excuse me Mr. Vice President, I’m speaking. His mouth snapped shut like a bear trap.
If Trump does, and you know he will accuse Harris of being too weak and feckless to deal with the national security implications that come with the Oval Office, Harris has her chance to pin him with that subzero stare, give him that 4th grade teacher voice, and say, Excuse me Mr. Trump, but it seems to me that it was you who admitted to exchanging beautiful love letters with Kim Jung Un, you who tried to extort the President of Ukraine with the promise of US aid for a sham investigation into the Biden family, it was you who shared compartmentalized secrets from an ally with the Russian Ambassador, and you who basically gave China’s President Xi a free hand in the South China Sea. This is playing tough with our mortal enemies?
Because here’s the bottom line. There’s a big difference between a confident, forceful black woman, and an angry black woman. The world has gotten steadily younger, browner, and more tolerant. And all of the tired old tropes about any black woman who dares to raise her voice, or dissent is automatically an angry black woman is rapidly going the way of the dookie Bird.
If Harris dares to raise her voice and assert herself, be that angry black woman, she will be richly rewarded. If she does that, she will unite the sisterhood behind her as no one has ever been able to do before. A strong black woman handing a rich arrogant white man his head will have them lining up, As well as the men who love them, and are sick of seeing their women marginalized.
And the same will be true for white women. Even they will be thrilled to see somebody, anybody female stick it right up the ass of that sexist pig standing on two cloven hooves. And so will the men who love them and are sick of seeing them marginalized by a sexist ruling class. Traitor Tot is a dinosaur, and if Harris takes him down aggressively but in context, then his last foot will slip into the La Brea tar pit. And the rest of the sexist pigs with him.
It’s a brave new world. And while the mainstream media may fixate on the angry black woman trope to try to generate possible controversy, the rest of the country has already moved past that. Is it that the rest of the country can throw a sh*t fit at will every time they’re pissed off, but only black women have to act like they’re at a garden party? If Hollywood can lionize a battered white wife who killed her husband by setting their bed on fire while he slept, then I think we’re all ready for Kamala Harris to make a point by raising her voice.
I thank you for the privilege of your time.
Most of the iconic movie In The Heat Of The Night (quite different than the TV show) was filmed in counties adjacent to the one I grew up in. One memorable scene was filmed in another state because they needed a cotton plantation. It generated LOTS of controversy including during the actual filming and then cutting the movie that would be shown to the public. The black cop (from out of state no less) slapping back when an old-school racist rich bigwig slapped him in response to a delicately put point. I literally thought I was seeing my P.O.S. grandfather on the screen. He looked a lot like the Endicott character and the attitude was spot on. Especially the after the slap stuff. After retirement, without his f**king badge (first as a pollice captain in Jonesboro, AR and then as a federal railroad cop he could let his racist freak flag fly under the color of legal authority. Without it he was only able to beat up on my grandmother until my dad was finally confronted with THAT and put the fear of god into grandpa. But that loss of being able to dispense or order the dispensing of summary justice including death to some “uppity n*****r” turned him rather hollow. Had a black cop slapped HIM he’d have reacted the same way. Lamenting what he no longer could get away with and fighting back tears, not of pain but humiliation as he turned away.
You know what? I kind of like the idea of Harris proverbially slapping Trump and him experiencing the kind of humiliation of fighting back tears. Live in front of a huge national audience. Michelle Obama gave us a taste of it (and you can bet it got a rise out of Trump – and others) with her “failing forward” comments. All Harris has to do is put a little finer point on that kind of thing and Trump will feel like he got slapped in the face with a baby shark!
Great movie. For those not around in 1967, when I was 14 turning 15, they have no idea how radical that movie was. Loved that scene along with Sidney Poitier’s answer to the sheriff, Rod Steiger, when he asked: what do they call you boy? Sidney replied forcefully: They call me MR. TIBBS! Kamala would do well to watch that prior to the debate.
Sidney Poitier had a clause written into his contract which specified that the slap-back footage could NEVER be cut from that film, no matter where, when or how it was shown in future, under risk of enormous financial penalties for all involved.
Murf…I swore off white women a long time ago after two betrayals in marriage, with them being in the wrong and the system supporting them. Cue up the shitstorm, but don’t ask me to ignore the reality of my experience. The lady I’ve been with for 18 years is a dark skinned lady from Tuskegee whose family owns land next to the famed airfield because the government gave her ancestor syphilis without disclosing it. She has endured more shit than can be believed. We share that. Being born on the same day 20 years apart seems immaterial at this point. I’m no expert even on my own goddamn life, but spending almost 20 years inside a black family from the poor side of town in a black town gives me some unique perspective as a white man from Appalachia. She takes no shit from anyone…neither of us do. All Kamala has to do is be herself, take no goddamn prisoners, and do not take any shit from ANYONE, whether it be from orangebob shitpants or the hired guns,(moderators), of the ultra rich. If he goes to grab her pussy, figuratively, then break his goddamn hand off and stuff it down his cakehole. I get the feeling there’s a LOT of us who want to see Cartman get his ass kicked by Wendy on the playground, which he did in Southpark.This is not the time to play nice with a fascist child killing sadist. He may have the system on his side but he’s an empty suit full of empty bravado. The only thing bullies REALLY understand is a phucking punch in the mouth. I would have never walked out of the pen alive by being nice and reasonable. I had to make killers/rapists believe their life might be in danger if they phucked with me…and the truth is, they were in danger. Funny how little we know of ourselves until threatened with real danger. Kamala needs to be fierce. Anything less and she will lose the debate because it’s not a level playing field as you’ve noted. Somehow so many citizens believe you can’t be a warrior and have compassion at the same time. Wrong. The only true warriors care deeply and are willing to fight to the death for the things they care about. Kamala appears to care deeply. Trump doesn’t give a rat’s ass about anyone but himself.
idk. Hilary Clinton was a Caucasian female and Trump & everyone dragged her thru the mud.
Instru…she was a rich, powerful, highly privileged white lady who had her husband’s history on her back. Not everyone. Remember she won the popular vote. The republican party has always been misogynist. They’ve just come out of the shadows to provide shade for this nazi. No worries though…Nikki Haley just told us it’s not. Sure Nikki. She does very well for a creature with no spine. She even walks upright.
If VP Harris gets challenged on her “laugh” as not having enough “gravitas” for her to deal with the world’s “strong men,” she could always ask Trump, “Well, would you care to explain how you managed to deal with those ‘strong men’ with your high tenor, Bart Simpson voice?”
Then, she’d follow up with “No offense to the very talented Nancy Cartwright.”