On Tuesday, July 11th, Democratic presidential candidate Joseph Biden announced senator Kamala Harris as his vice presidential running mate. Some people are excited at the possibility of having a black woman as vice president, deeming the announcement as a “watershed” moment and vowing to support Biden and Harris’ campaign. Harris is also being championed by some for her past as a so-called “progressive” prosecutor.
These are sentiments that we must reject, however, if we are to be true freedom loving people. Kamala Harris is a neocolonialist sellout, a member of the colonized nation who has done everything throughout her political career as prosecutor, district attorney, state attorney general and U.S. senator to strengthen colonialism and parasitic capitalism at the expense of the black working class.
Here are 8 reasons why black people should reject Kamala Harris.
1. Kamala Harris Was The “Top Cop” of California
The police function as a tool of imperialism put in place by the white ruling class to protect their economic, social and political interests at African people’s expense. The relationship that the police have with African (black) people is one of oppressor vs oppressed. It’s their job to oppress, dominate, imprison and kill us.
With this understanding, we must recognize that it’s contradictory to support Kamala Harris who has labeled herself as the “top cop” of California. She functioned as prosecutor from 1994 to 2011 where she significantly contributed to the 2.3 million people who are jailed or imprisoned in the U.S.
2. Harris Locked Up African Parents Because Their Children Missed School
As San Francisco’s district attorney, Harris also charged, criminalized and imprisoned African parents because their children were truant, meaning they regularly missed school. Once she became attorney general in 2011, she persuaded the state legislature to adopt harsher penalties for truancy. Under the new law, parents of a truant child could be fined $2,500 or more, or face one year in jail.
At her attorney general inauguration Harris stated, “If you fail in your responsibility to your kids, we are going to work to make sure you face the full force and consequences of the law.”
Locking parents up, however, further feeds the problem of mass incarceration of Africans and other colonized people. It does not address the root causes of why students may miss out on school in the first place.
Harris’ truancy law ignored the effects that colonialism and parasitic capitalism have on Africans and other colonized people. It had no regard for the poverty, health issues and other social issues that we endure which causes our kids to miss school.
This was a purely anti-African law that functioned to put money into the State and send our people to jail.
3. Kamala Also Locked Up African People for Weed
As district attorney, over 8000 people were arrested for marijuana in 7 years. Almost 2000 of those arrested were imprisoned. During an interview with The Breakfast Club in February 2019, Kamala laughed as she admitted to smoking weed herself while she was in college.
The imprisonment of our people for marijuana is even more upsetting when we think of the white companies that are now making millions from selling weed while our brothers and sisters rot in jail.
4. Harris Opposed Reforming the 3 Strikes Law
The vice president candidate has repeatedly supported the 3 strikes law, also known as the Habitual Offender Law, and opposed reforming it. The 3 strikes law is when an individual is sentenced to life in prison after they are convicted of 3 crimes.
The law was adopted by California in 1994. By 2001, 50,000 people had been sentenced under the law and about 12,000 prisoners were facing a minimum of 25 years in prison. Under this law, African people are imprisoned at a rate 12 times higher than whites.
African people make up 7 percent of California’s population, but a whopping 30 percent of California’s overall prison population. We also make up 45 percent of third-strikers serving life sentences.
This anti-African law was supported by Kamala. It left many black families devastated as husbands were separated from wives and fathers separated from their children. This also provided cheap labor to be exploited by the capitalist prison industry.
5. Kamala Also Supports Prison Labor
As California Attorney General, Kamala led a team that fought to keep more people imprisoned so they could fight California wildfires. The prosecutor pushed back against a federal order to expand an early parole program, arguing that it would deplete their stock of prison labor which paid prisoners $1 an hour or less.
Through this, Kamala has strengthened the parasitic capitalist system at the expense of our people as our imprisoned sisters and brothers work for a few dollars a day while companies make millions in profit from their labor.
6. Kamala Supports The Death Penalty
Kamala’s support of the death penalty which executed hundreds of innocent people, especially Africans, further solidifies her support for the oppressive colonial State. The death penalty itself is a tool of colonial genocide used to control and contain the potentially insurgent African population within the United States.
Kamala also advocated for innocent Africans on death row to be executed. Kevin Cooper is one such African as she pushed for his execution even though Kevin had DNA evidence that proved his innocence in a 35-year-old murder case.
7. Harris Refused to Prosecute Police Who Murdered African People
The uprising of the black working class that followed the police murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd and shows that we are fed up with the police killing our people.
Kamala Harris isn’t fed up, however, as she has repeatedly refused to prosecute police who murder black people. As California’s attorney general, she refused to intervene in cases involving killings by the police. In 2015, she opposed a bill requiring her to investigate police shootings.
Her presence at a police brutality protest back in June is laughable when we consider that when she had the power to put killer cops behind bars, she did nothing.
8. Kamala Supported a Law That Forces Schools to Turn Undocumented Students Over to ICE, Separating Them From Their Families
More than 100 immigrant youth in San Francisco were detained or deported because of a 2008 city policy implemented by former mayor and now governor Gavin Newsom and supported by Kamala Harris, who was the city’s district attorney at the time.
Though San Francisco is a so-called sanctuary city, the policy required police to notify ICE about undocumented youth arrested for felonies, in some cases for minor crimes. The young people were handed over even before guilt or innocence was proven. Being detained by the police is traumatic enough for adults yet alone children. In cases where the child was deported, this family separation is devastating for everyone involved.
It must also be stated that this land belongs to the Indigenous people. The US has no claims to this land and no right to deport people from these illegitimate borders. In fact, the only illegal people in the United States are white people.
Reject Kamala, Biden and U.S. Imperialism
Kamala Harris has committed countless crimes against African people, yet some are pledging support to her based solely on her being a black woman who needs “protection.”
This is ridiculous because Kamala has no interest in protecting black people or improving our material conditions. Instead she has only furthered our oppression.
As we raise criticisms of Kamala Harris, we must also oppose U.S. imperialism entirely because the U.S. is an illegitimate settler colony, thus rendering any U.S. presidency and vice presidency illegitimate. The U.S., its government and laws were all built on the genocide of Indigenous people and enslavement of African people.
As freedom loving people, our struggle should be to create organizations to overturn this oppressive colonial system under which Africans and other colonized people have no power or self-determination and replace it with Socialism.
