Antonio White on Kamala's 'Firstness'.

First published in 1970, Essence magazine is written for African-American women. Kamala Harris is West Indian on her father's side and South Indian on her mother's side. She may identify with African-American women but she isn't one herself. Her birth certificate identifies her mother as 'Caucasian' and her father as 'Jamaican'. I should mention, there were and are pure White Jamaicans. 

The Cost Of Being First: Why Kamala Harris’ Story Deserves Respect
Critics dismissed Kamala Harris’s new memoir as “cry baby stuff,” but her story reflects the lived realities of women—especially Black women—who break barriers and bear the burden of being first.

But Kamala benefitted from affirmative action all her adult life. A previous generation made sacrifices. What she had was entitlement inherited not from her own ancestors but those of actual African Americans. At no point did Kamala suffer by reason of her colour or her gender. True, being the daughter of a highly regarded Stanford Professor of Economics, helped her academically. But she did embrace African-American culture by her own volition. But so did lots of White boys in Britain. Back then, it was, as I still have to be physically prevented from saying, 'da shizzle'.  True, I am unusual in that I identify with Beyonce rather than Eddy Murphy, but have you seen my booty shake? I haven't. I'd dearly like to know if it is as good as I think it is. 

Antonio White, who isn't White, writes

Recently released excerpts from 107 Days, the memoir of former Vice President Kamala Harris, drew the ire of senior Democratic Party strategists last week, notably political commentators David Axelrod and Van Jones.

Because she has damaged the party. She has also laid to rest the vicious canard that she might have brains and integrity. 

During a Friday afternoon segment on CNN’s Arena with Kasie Hunt, the pair reduced Harris’ account of her historic, though brief, presidential campaign to “cry baby stuff.”

They didn't get that if you are a diversity hire who hopes to speak for diversity hires everywhere, then you must be a big fat cry-baby. Otherwise, people might think you had risen on merit. This might cause them to expect you to do useful things or, at least, speak in a cogent manner. This is totes triggering to the genuine diversity hire. People should understand that such creatures are utterly useless. It is everybody else's job to achieve things and then give the credit to the diversity hire.  

Jones declared Harris “did not have a political future,”

That was my first reaction. Then I realized that useless shitheads have a political future because they REPRESENT useless shitheads. We must respect such people for we too are they.  

while Axelrod called the passages “salacious” marketing to boost book sales.

Sadly, they were no such thing.  

Yet, millions of women who undergird the Democratic Party see Kamala as a mirror reflecting their very adult lived experiences on a national stage.

They have 'impostor syndrome'. They suspect they may actually be diversity hires even if they are doing all the work in the office and at home. Kamala represents their needy, narcissistic, 'inner child', no matter what genuine achievements they have to their credit. 

It must be said, in a country which has traditionally seen Black Women as smart, dedicated, hard-working and sociable, it is a relief to have so glaring a counter-example. The problem is, Kamala isn't really black. She, like Vivek Ramaswamy, is a Tambram on the make. But Vivek's USP is that he is a bright wealth-creator. Kamala's is that she is stupid and never held down a private sector job. 

Political commentators should be careful not to reduce the former Vice President’s personal account to merely petty political theater, lest they risk alienating a key Democratic voting bloc that overwhelmingly chose Democrats in the 2024, 2020, and 2016 general elections.

In other words, African Americans are stuck with Kamala. Those who diss her, diss us. The fact that she is stupid and self-centred means there is no point expecting anything of her or calling her to account. Either we say 'she isn't one of us- her parents were highly educated immigrants' or we have to slavishly adhere to her cult of self-adulation.  

Jones and Axelrod’s criticism stems from Harris’s account of events where she describes being on the receiving end of loyalty suspicions from President and First Lady Biden,

Which boss isn't worried his deputy mightn't be working against him? Not a senile, incompetent, boss- that's for sure.  

isolation from Democratic leaders in her role as Vice President

they wouldn't come for sleep-overs even though she promised she'd let them play with her Malibu Barbie.  Was this because she was bleck? No. It was because she has to sit down to pee. 

and party nominee, and professional undermining from internal White House staff. Her account is not gossip—it is testimony.

to her infantile narcissism- sure.  

And in telling it, Harris is doing what Firsts have always done:

e.g. Obama 

narrating the lived reality of being in a seat where no one like her has sat before

So, not like Obama. He didn't have to sit down to pee. Kamala, on becoming Veep, was jeered at because she couldn't use the urinal the way Pence had done. She hoped Biden would show her some empathy and chop off his own dick in solidarity with her. He refused to even mention the idea.  

and validating the experiences of millions whose experiences she reflects at the highest levels.

Unlike Antonio who doesn't have to sit down to pee. Also, the dude can grow a really cool beard. What a bastard! It's like he is rubbing it into the faces of his own mothers and sisters. Fuck you Antonio! You are just as bad as Joe Biden!  

The Broader Pattern

Broader economic and career patterns illustrate that Harris’ experiences reflect more than her own reality—they are consistent with what women

who slept with Willie Brown to gain political advancement 

and minority “firsts” encounter across society.

Monica Lewinsky had it worse. On the other hand, maybe she wasn't the first to be on the receiving end of Clinton's cigar.  

Those who rise into new ground-breaking roles report widespread pay gaps, fewer professional advancement opportunities, and harsher penalties than peers.

But not Kamala. She was the beneficiary of affirmative action and political patronage. Also, she only worked in the public sector. Will her book make her a lot of money? Yes, if African Americans are foolish enough to buy it.  

Increasingly, many are turning to entrepreneurship not out of indulgence, but out of necessity in the face of shrinking opportunity.

Kamala is being entrepreneurial. She hired a white woman to help her write 107 days.  

Black women working full time, year round were paid only about 64 cents for every dollar paid to White men in 2023.

But Kamala changed that- right?  In 2019 she was talking of a 'Pay Equity Punishment Plan'     requiring Companies to get certified that they were paying men and women equally. It may have been a hare-brained scheme, but other countries have passed laws on the issue while Biden-Harris did nothing. In 2024, there was no mention of the issue. 

Earlier data placed the figure closer to 61 cents. White women fare only slightly better, earning 77 cents. Even former President Barack Obama, whom by most accounts Axelrod and Jones owe their relevance to, also noted this reality during his presidency, even signing into law the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.

This removed the time-bar previously placed on such claims by the Bench. Sadly, the British city of Birmingham was bankrupted by claims brought under the 2010 Equality Act. 

At the same time, Black women are leaving the workforce at staggering rates. This year alone, nearly 300,000 Black women have stepped away from traditional labor—

so, it's not just Kamala who lost her job. Still, the good news is 300,000 Black Women can write their own 107 days and make a lot of money.  

a “stunning reversal” of hard-won gains. Economists estimate the drop is costing the U.S. economy tens of billions in GDP.

Because DEI hires in the Federal Bureaucracy bring great benefits to the economy- right? 

In a single month, more than 100,000 Black women lost jobs, the sharpest decline of any demographic group.

The problem with getting a zero marginal product job is that you are the first to be laid off when the Federal Government tightens its belt. It is deeply unfair that useless employees are not retained while the useful are let go.  

Even when women do rise to the top, the rules are different.

No. The rules are the same. Outcomes are different.  

Women CEOs average 5.2 years in leadership, compared to nearly eight for men.

Though women are likely to become CEO at a younger age. On the other hand, they may have higher 'transfer earnings' or, if especially competent, can cash out quicker as stock prices rise.  

Too often, they are appointed in moments of crisis—the “glass cliff”—when conditions are most precarious, like Harris found herself following a jaw dropping dismal first debate performance from former President Biden in the summer of 2024.

She started well but then declined because she was shit.  

Yet, boards scrutinize their decisions more harshly, and media coverage frames their departures more negatively.

So what? Higher scrutiny keeps you up to the mark.  

Academia and public service tells a parallel story.

It is a story the American public has got tired off. You can't turn a sow's ear into a silk purse even if sow's ears have been historically underrepresented in Academia, public services, and the higher ranks of the Judiciary.  

Black women leaders are often brought in during crises, under-resourced, and then swiftly removed when problems persist.

Nonsense! They are brought in because nobody expects anything of them.  

Their exits are magnified without mercy and underreported without context. Look at former Harvard president Claudine Gay.

A Political Scientist who was shit at politics 

Look at how Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook

A Biden appointee. She brings nothing to the table. Still, the accusation against her appears prima facie false. On the other hand, nobody really believes the Fed is independent. It's best to let sleeping dogs lie. What if she is replaced by somebody smart?  

was nearly stripped of her seat as the first in her role

she wasn't the first useless person in that role. 

without due process just weeks ago. These are not isolated incidents. They are patterns.

Did you know that Trump is President? He is White and has a dick. There's a pattern to these things is all I am saying.  

The First Person’s Burden

Step into Harris’s shoes. You are the first woman Vice President.

Because Geraldine Ferraro & Sarah Palin were on losing tickets. Also Biden had committed to appointing a Black Woman. Who was the most useless person he could find? People were on the edge of their seats.  

The first Black Vice President.

There had been a two term Black President. People thought Hilary could have been two-term. They were wrong. Women don't necessarily vote for women. They may even vote for a 'pussy-grabber' if they think he will do a better job. 

There is only one true 'first' in recent American politics. It is Donald Trump. He never received a Government pay-check before getting the top job.  

The first South Asian Vice President.

The first Tambram Veep. The first Tambram Veep whose Mum came from the right side of the Cauvery. The first Tambram Veep whose Mum came from the right side of the Cauvery who was named after the first Konkan widow to marry one of Sarojini Naidu's brothers.  

You carry centuries of aspiration on your shoulders.

The aspirations of Jamaicans and Tambrams- not to mention half Jamaican Tambrams.  

The media questions your every move.

Especially your bowel movements. That's as it should be. Biden never asked Kamala if she had gone number 2. This is because Kamala was dark skinned. Also, she had to sit down to pee.  

Allies hesitate to defend you.

Worse yet, they don't ask if you have done potty and don't pat you on the back if you have.  

And when you finally choose to tell your story, you’re told to be quiet—or worse, ridiculed.

First they refuse to compliment you on going potty. Then, when  you finally choose to tell your story about being emotionally scarred and psychically raped, sodomized, decapitated and fat shamed, they tell you to be quiet or, worse yet, write mean things about you on their blog.  

In that position, wouldn’t it be common sense to reclaim your narrative?

Not unless you can make money by it.  

To monetize it?

There it is! Kamala wants stupid African Americans to buy her shitty book. She will laugh all the way to the bank.  

To make it not just about your experience, but about the millions of women whose lives look like yours?

Nobody's life looks like Kamala's. She was the diversity hire par excellence. Sadly, for 300,000 African-American women, she has killed off DEI. Still, if she makes a lot of money out of her shitty book, she comes out of this as a winner. 

Harris is not simply selling books. She is leveraging her position, her history, her firstness.

to sell books. It's not as though she is a good writer. If she doesn't 'leverage' her position, she is just an unemployed lady who cooks pork for her Jewish husband.  

She can be both Shirley Chisholm

who was of West Indian heritage. She benefited from the good, British style, education in Barbados and retained a West Indian accent to the end of her life. 

and Madam C.J. Walker,

the first in her family to be born free 

truth-teller and entrepreneur.

The first self-made female millionaire in American history.  

If felony convictions don’t stop men from holding the highest office in the land, why should Harris telling her truth discredit her legacy and place in history?

Very true. Trump and Harris are on an equal footing in that respect. Both paid the price for being 'the first' of their kind.  

Kamala Harris is not a pundit’s punchline. She is a precedent.

Only if more DEI candidates end up at the top. Sadly, if that happens, the US will end up at the bottom.  

To honor her story is to honor the stories of millions of women who are doubted,

some doubted Kamala could win against Trump. In honouring her, we are also honouring Hilary.  

underpaid,

she was a public sector employee. She was paid what men were paid.  

undermined, and pushed out, but who rise anyway—to meet the demands of their jobs,

her job was to lose to Trump. So was Hilary's. Biden's job was to win against Trump. Sadly, he wasn't allowed to do it for a second time.  

to get out the vote at polls,

Kamala helped get the vote out- for Trump.  

and to lead movements on the front lines.

Kamala was often seen leading Ukrainian troops into battle.  

She’s not a crybaby.

She is a crafty opportunist who hired a white woman to churn out some worthless dross which, she hopes, Black peeps will be stupid enough to buy.  

She’s a First.

She's the second woman to lose to Trump.  

She’s a mirror.

Not my mirror. I'm as ugly as shit. Kamala is beautiful.  

And she’s using her story the way Firsts always have to:

coz Firsts like money 

as proof of what’s possible,

an empty pant-suit can become Veep even if she is stupider than Selina Myers.  

and as a blueprint for those who will come next.

Kamala will launch her own line of hair straighteners and skin lighteners. Also, she will take over the role of Madea from Tyler Perry. Obama will cry and cry when Madea says mean things about him and farts noisily.  

Put some respect on the former Vice President’s name.

Because nobody else will.