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In the United States, identity politics is now more powerful and prevalent than ever before. This shift began when the forty-fourth president of the United States, Barack Obama, instituted a foundational upheaval in American politics by becoming the first black man to hold the executive office.
Today, after 20 years, four presidents and two terms in office, another person of color is running for office. The biggest question is then, what has America learned since Obama?
As the son of an American mother and Kenyan father, former President Obama fell squarely outside of the traditional mould of what it means to be a “Black American” in the country. According to population data, there are approximately 47.9 million Black Americans in the country today, comprising of 14.7 percent of the population. Over 90 percent of this cross section of the population are classified as “African Americans”—U.S. citizens who have ancestral ties to an original enslaved population in the U.S. in prior centuries.
Obama, however, is not the typical “African American.” Having a father who is descended directly from the African continent and growing up in Hawaii means he has not shared a lot of the orthodox Black American experience. Many people fail to recognize this fact, just as they fail to recognize the difference in experiences of individuals both within and between races.
In a publicly aired conversation with the National Association of Black Journalists on July 31, former President Donald Trump asserted that Vice President Kamala Harris “became a black person” to support her presidential election bid, following up by aggressively questioning “is she Indian, or is she black?” The fact that a presidential candidate can make such an accusation in a public forum is concerning.
Trump first gained political recognition in 2008 by questioning Obama’s citizenship rights, implicating that he did not fit the requirements to be in office. Obama’s status as the first Black president invited these questions around his decision-making that other presidents may not have faced.
Harris faces the same challenges in the 2024 election, as she is the first Asian, Black and female individual to run for head of executive. 106 women of colour have been elected to the United States government in current statistics. However, with a total of over 11,000 individuals being elected to congress since 1787, this demographic is less than 1% of the American government in recorded history. This also makes it the smallest identity group in the American political system by some margin. It is therefore clear that America has a difficulty accommodating those outside of a traditional American politician.
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Harris will have the shortest run of any presidential candidate in history, having just a three-month lead time in advance of the election. However, she has also raised more funding in a shorter time span than any candidate in history, receiving an incredible $36 million within 24 hours of the Harris and Walz joint ticket being announced.
The circumstances of the Harris’ campaign make it both unlikely and untested. Coming from a political scenario many prominent members of the Democratic party hailed as highly unlikely, she is remaking what is means to run for president.
The Harris campaign identified itself as “charting a new course” in American politics. By framing herself as the change candidate, she has put a significant amount of runway between herself and the political turmoil of the near decade since Trump officiated his political career. In five weeks, she has reinvigorated hope for so many, lifting the entirety of the Democratic party up with her.
By extension, it feels as though she is carrying the voices of an increasingly dynamic, diverse and mobile non-white population in the country. In the 2020 presidential election, an average of four in 10 voters were non-white, and this statistic is only increasing. The question of whether these voters bring their allegiance will be the crucial determinant of the fate of the 2024 election, and with it, the fate of what it means to be a racial minority in the country.
In the last 20 years, the composition and politics of the United States have undergone foundational shifts. Two decades of political contest have showcased the significance of minority figures who operate outside traditional molds for office. They are doing so for good reason. As Harris states, all Americans hold a crucial choice in their hands: whether to go backwards, to a past that does not reflect America’s complex cultural and racial mix, or to move forward toward a new dawn for America.
Soon, Americans will have an opportunity to shape the racial narrative of the nation and present the country as the best version of itself. A version where a black woman is the epitomized model of American leadership.
Update: This post has been updated to adhere to the AP Style