Hoping for Black Credibility

I have been captivated by the overwhelming sense of relief and joy I see people expressing following the emergence of Kamala Harris’s candidacy. The joy is especially evident among women, particularly women of color, people of color, and everyone who dreaded the specter of the return of the chaos we experienced during the Trump years, but this time with the Heritage Foundation’s vision for the future.

Though the Democratic National Convention (DNC) did all it could to script out Muslims’ appeals, the grace that I encounter among many Muslims draws me home to my relationship with Jesus.

Last week, Ani Zonneveld, a Malaysian American and founder of Muslims for Progressive Values (MPV), said, “I am a Muslim, and I spent my morning trying to ask folks I know who spoke at the DNC to try to convince the Harris-Walz team to allow a vetted Palestinian speaker time at the podium. It didn’t happen. I am deeply disappointed, and I, too, am infuriated by the bombs we supply and the carnage we are complicit in. I will not deny a Black and South Asian woman this opportunity, and for the hopes and dreams of millions of Americans who will benefit from their domestic policies. By voting for Harris-Walz, I will be building goodwill with my Black sisters, the churches and others so we can say, we stood with you; now please stand with us.”

The time is now for U.S. citizens to stand with our Muslim siblings. Black folks share a unique responsibility and capacity to do so. In spite of global anti-Blackness, the daughters and sons of Africa maintain an influence that we often forget we have.

African-Americans, along with Pan-African leaders like Nelson Mandela and Patrice Lumumba before him, have won the international community’s respect. Martin Luther King holds an unparalleled place in people’s esteem.

Now that the Kamala Harris campaign has prioritized their “American values” over and against the suffering of Palestinians while gathering in the city with the highest number of Palestinian Americans, it’s important to question the significance of their decision before the excitement fades. Many African Americans see Kamala Harris as the embodiment of justice’s dream, but we need to challenge her in ways that perhaps we failed Barack Obama.

I want to witness Kamala Harris utterly demolish the arrogance, misogyny, and white Christian Nationalism that has encroached upon our very personhood.

But when Harris said, “I will ensure America always has the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world,” I cringed because the language of global lethality is strange to me. It can too easily feel like empire, colonization, violence, and genocide. We need to challenge Kamala Harris and Tim Walz to earn our vote.

In the 1990s, there were instances when several countries detained U.S. nationals for different reasons. Reverend Jesse Jackson was the only person capable of negotiating with the leaders of these countries, who showed no respect for the United States.

At various points, Jackson was called upon to interact with Slobodan Milosevic, Hafez al-Assad, Fidel Castro, and Saddam Hussein. U.S. officials avoided explicitly acknowledging that these leaders did not trust the power held by white Americans.

Whom would Washington send today? Our foreign counterparts know us too well to listen to the grifters like Byron Donalds, Tim Scott, Candace Owens, or some of the others whose Blackness is too sheer to hide their duplicity. The world knows which African-Americans would be invited to the cookout.

So, where do we go from here? I’d love to know your thoughts and ideas.

Hip-hop is the most listened-to music genre in the world. Although the performers come from diverse backgrounds such as Arab, Irish, Indian, Hawaiian, Māori, and Native American, its popularity as an art form is rooted in African-American resilience. This resilience is our spiritual foundation. The hymnody of enslaved, and later segregated, people is often referred to as the Third Testament by the Black Academy. Our music reminds us of our African, including Muslim, origins and our American epic, which I’d like to think is just beginning.

But we don’t want to give up too much. We are soul brothers and sisters. We may eat soul food and listen to soul music. Jesus asked us, “What does it profit you to gain the world and lose your soul?”

#EarnOurVote