The Brave Example of Kamala Harris

“Is she Indian or is she Black?”

“She slept her way into politics.”

“The original ‘Hawk Tuah’ girl.”

These are just a few of the racist and sexist comments that have been hurled at Vice-President Kamala Harris since she became the presumptive presidential nominee of the Democratic party in July before securing the nomination on Friday.

By several measures, her campaign is off to a roaring start. In less than 36 hours, she smashed the record for grassroots fundraising, raising more than US$100 million.

Many of her supporters are first-time donors and campaign volunteers, eager to answer phones and knock on doors for her.

Among the important younger demographics of gen Z and younger millennial voters, her popularity is growing in part thanks to various memes flooding the internet, including the widely circulated “brat” label put on her by British pop singer Charli XCX.

Yet the inevitable and familiar backlash to her candidacy for the highest office in the United States has also begun.

One white male Republican referred to her as a “DEI vice-president,” using the initialism for diversity, equity and inclusion, while the Republican vice-presidential nominee suggested that she’s unsuitable for public office as a “childless cat lady.”

A combined hatred for women of colour

These attacks against Harris are not new, but they reflect a combined hatred directed at women of colour known as “misogynoir.” Coined by Moya Bailey in 2008, misogynoir is a portmanteau of “misogyny,” which is the hatred of women, and “noir,” the French word for “black.”

According to Bailey, misogynoir is perpetrated through popular media depictions, in TV shows and movies and on social media. It serves to uphold white supremacist, colonial patriarchy by controlling how society views Black women.

Based on her race and gender as a biracial woman, Harris is a multi-threat to the status quo that has long dominated politics on both sides of the border: not only is she a woman seeking public office, but she is also a woman of colour (South Asian and Black).

Research by American political scientists Nadia E. Brown and Danielle Casarez Lemi reveals how voters rely on stereotypes of Black women, who must face discriminatory beliefs not confronted by white, male candidates.

The misogynoir directed at Harris is similar to that directed at other Black female candidates and is intended to dehumanize her and to delegitimize her candidacy for presidential office.

A political system that pushes women out

References to Harris’s promiscuousness, for example, are rooted in the historical hyper-sexualization of Black female public figures and, through the help of modern technologies, are now circulating globally through various memes, deepfakes and hashtags, all alleging Harris traded her sexuality for political favours and is therefore undeserving and too incompetent to be the next president.

Unfortunately, none of this is surprising. We are two academics who recently co-edited a book through University of Toronto Press called Gender-Based Violence in Canadian Politics in the #MeToo Era. Our work demonstrates that whenever any woman — especially a woman of colour — puts her name forward to run for public office, the onslaught of sexist and racist attacks is likely to follow.

In our research, we argue that violence, harassment and sexist, racist attacks are features — not anomalies — of liberal democracies, threatening gender equality and democratic processes around the world.

Current attacks against Harris are not exclusive to American politics. Canadian female politicians have shared heart-rending stories of sexual assault, while others have recounted the racist, sexist attacks they’ve experienced on social media.

In her 2021 farewell speech, NDP MP Mumilaaq Qaqqaq disclosed the anti-Indigenous racism she experienced on Parliament Hill, a workplace she referred to as a “colonial house on fire.”

Gov. Gen. Mary Simon has also bravely spoken about the hate she’s received, some of which is so derogatory it’s unsuitable for print.

For some women, the costs of being in politics are simply too high. This year alone, three women from different levels of government — former Gatineau mayor France Bélisle, Alberta NDP MLA Shannon Phillips and Oakville North-Burlington Liberal MP Pam Damoff — announced their plans to leave public office.

Misogyny, death threats and/or a hostile political culture were cited as reasons for their departure. Their resignations follow the early exit from politics of B.C.’s first First Nations MLA, Melanie Mark, last year, when she referred to the provincial legislature as a “torture chamber.”

How to spark a needed culture shift

It doesn’t have to be this way. Researchers in our book offer solutions to address this problem. The first step is to adopt strong, enforceable policies focused on preventing and addressing gender- and race-based harassment in every legislature across the country. In British Columbia, the 17 recommendations proposed by the Working Group on Parliamentary Culture that aim to build a more inclusive, respectful parliamentary culture should be implemented immediately.

Politicians and staff need more targeted training to prevent harassment and to better equip them on how to deal with it when it happens.

In our book, Louise Cockram argues the House of Commons’ anti-harassment training needs to be updated to focus specifically on gender- and race-based violence in politics.

Meagan Cloutier proposes that training is needed for staff on how to deal with harassment from constituents.

The implementation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 Calls to Action and the recommendations made in the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls’ final report would help prevent violence directed at Indigenous female leaders, as argued in our book by Rebecca Major and Cynthia Niioo-bineh-seh-kwe Stirbys.

Civil society actors and media need to pitch in more. Angelia Wagner and Taylor Young propose national awareness campaigns to combat online violence and to educate the public.

Elizabeth Goodyear-Grant calls on news organizations to adopt specific guidelines to avoid sexism and racism in their reporting — something that should have stopped the incident against Kamala Harris on Fox News.

Gabrielle Bardall and Chris Tenove show how social media companies need to take greater responsibility for reducing the disproportionate harms of gender-based violence on their platforms.

Dianne Lalonde argues that Canada needs a national initiative to raise awareness about the growing problem of image-based sexual violence online. Awareness-raising campaigns about the harms of online violence and harassment like those of the Governor General’s are also important.

Legal sanctions that recognize the unique threats of gender- and race-based violence to the democratic process are also needed. A stand-alone law criminalizing violence against women in politics that provides harsh penalties for offenders similar to what Bolivia adopted in 2012 should also be contemplated.

Over the next three months, Vice-President Harris’s campaign to become the president of the United States will expose the misogyny and racism deeply embedded in U.S. politics.

As Canadians watch these events unfold, we should not be complacent about the danger that gender- and race-based threats and violence pose to democracies on both sides of the border.

Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe recently asked how long it would be before one of the threats Canadian politicians face becomes violent.

With B.C.’s provincial election set to take place in October and a federal election on the horizon, action is needed now to address this serious threat to democracies worldwide.