The 2024 presidential election brought to the forefront complicated questions of representation, identity and structural barriers in the political world for Black women.
The Department of African & African American Studies held a post-election discussion on Nov. 16 at Fordham University at Lincoln Center. Attendees discussed the aesthetics of political parties, increasing social and political division and the complexities of people of color who have fallen into MAGA ideology.
The gathering provided students with a space to reflect on the election’s implications, particularly in light of Vice President Kamala Harris’ unsuccessful candidacy and what it revealed about the political and social landscape of the United States.
After the event, Lauren Payne, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’25, explained how the Harris-Walz campaign resonated with her.
“She’s experiencing a certain kind of racism and a certain kind of sexism that are different from the racism a Black man would experience or different from the sexism that a white woman would experience because it was compounded into one body.” Laurie Lambert, associate professor in the African & African American Studies department
“As a Black woman seeing a Black woman, whatever any capacity that she’s in truly, for me was a very inspirational thing and I loved it,” Payne said. And when Harris lost she felt that, “it signifies, there’s just more work to be done and that there’s a need for widespread social and political mobilization for black women.”
Payne said she became politically aware during a period of deep division as she grew up during the first Trump administration and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Laurie Lambert, associate professor in the African & African American Studies department, reflected on the intersectionality that the Harris-Walz campaign was met with.
“She’s experiencing a certain kind of racism and a certain kind of sexism that are different from the racism a Black man would experience or different from the sexism that a white woman would experience because it was compounded into one body,” Lambert said.
“The thing about Black womanhood is that people can clock it from a mile away. Because it’s already baked into people’s perceptions about you, you’re kind of screwed and stuck with it.” Lydia Williams, FCLC ’25
President of Black Student Alliance Kennedi Hutchins, FCLC ’25, said that she looked up to Harris as a role model who broke barriers in higher education and government. At the same time Hutchins said she was well aware of the double burden carried by Harris.
“There’s the notion of being Black where not only is she a woman inferior to the male gender, but the white race on top of that,” Hutchins said.
Although many felt hope and pride watching the Harris-Walz campaign, there was an undercurrent of frustration. Lydia Williams, FCLC ’25, said that Harris had to compensate for prejudiced perceptions of her as a Black woman in her campaign style.
“The thing about Black womanhood is that people can clock it from a mile away,” Williams said. “Because it’s already baked into people’s perceptions about you, you’re kind of screwed and stuck with it,” Williams said.
“The country did not trust a Black woman like Kamala Harris to lead. As a Black woman, things happen day to day all the time that you’re always questioned on your authority for anything.” Laurie Lambert, associate professor in the African & African American Studies department
A recurring theme in the discussion was the lack of direct engagement with Black women’s needs in campaign platforms and media narratives. While Harris represented a historic breakthrough, many said that they felt her campaign missed opportunities to address issues uniquely affecting Black women. Payne said that gendered violence, particularly within prisons, has been excluded from the political discourse.
“Black women are more subject to domestic violence and sexual violence in prisons,” Payne said.
Lambert critiqued the larger political discourse for not trusting Black women’s leadership and expertise.
“The country did not trust a Black woman like Kamala Harris to lead,” Lambert said. “As a Black woman, things happen day to day all the time that you’re always questioned on your authority for anything.”
Hutchins explained this argument and said that, while the Democratic policies on healthcare and higher education were forward-looking, they often failed to address systems that create disparities for Black women.
“We are always the group doing it. Organizing and mobilizing. It’s just a matter of taking our mobility as a group and as a sisterhood and being able to spread that, create more political power, create more solidarity.” Lauren Payne, FCLC ’25
“While policies may have been assumed to affect Black women and have that notion to appeal to them, I don’t think anyone is really thinking about Black women,” Hutchins said.
Nora Flamer, FCLC ’24, pointed out differences she has observed in how each party advocates for Black women as voters during election cycles. First she said that Democrats took the support of Black women for granted in the 2024 election.
“On the Kamala side, it was ‘oh we got Black women in the bag,’” Flamer said. “And so Black women did not really need to be convinced, and that’s why there wasn’t much talk of what Black women were actually benefiting from.”
On the other hand, Flamer said she believes that the Republican party does not consider the interests of Black women.
Hutchins said even Candace Owens, “who was a black woman herself”, questioned Harris’ racial identity.
“I feel like Black women are never paid attention to on that side. We don’t exist on that side,” Flamer said.
Additionally, Payne said that Black women are always organizing through their shared struggle.
“We are always the group doing it. Organizing and mobilizing. It’s just a matter of taking our mobility as a group and as a sisterhood and being able to spread that, create more political power, create more solidarity,” Payne said.
The conversations also touched on how media coverage framed the public opinion of the Harris-Walz campaign. While some progressive outlets saluted her historic run, conservative narratives used Harris’ identity against her. Hutchins said even Candace Owens, “who was a black woman herself”, questioned Harris’ racial identity.
Williams said progressive media’s focus on Trump overshadowed Harris’ identity.
“The question of ‘is she Black, South Asian?’ or whatever, she presents as a Black woman,” Hutchins said. “People have a problem looking at her. So it’s this skewing of race as an inferior notion that she can’t be in power because of that.”
Lambert pointed out a worrying silence in mainstream media over the intersectional barriers Harris had to overcome.
“There was enough to point out the racism and the sexism that she was facing,” Lambert said. “There’s a need to uncover and expose these issues.”
Williams said progressive media’s focus on Trump overshadowed Harris’ identity.
“When you look at more progressive media, I don’t want to say it was an afterthought but they very much treated it as like ‘she’s a black woman but that’s not the headline because of Trump,’” Williams said.
On the other hand, Lambert said conservative media featured a steady stream of prejudiced rhetoric.
“The more conservative side, they were very much focused on these incredibly inflamed, racist and transphobic ways of going about things,” Lambert said. “I think it certainly allowed the conservatives and the Republicans to control the narrative of who she is and the Democrats didn’t really take back that narrative and shut it down.”
Despite the challenges, Lambert saw examples of hope and resilience in the 2024 Presidential election. Lambert cited that 89% of Black women voted for Kamala in the election across educational, class and geographic differences.
“Black women are willing to vote for what they think is going to be best for the communities around them, even if it’s not necessarily something that’s going to help them in the immediate sense. Black women understand the challenges that we face as a country in a particular way and that comes out of the experience of moving through the world in a body that is raced and gendered in a particular way,” Lambert said.
Lambert also encouraged Black women to prioritize their well-being.
“The country has shown us what we experience on a day to day, but in a very large-scale way, and so maybe the work is to take care of ourselves a little bit more right now,” Lambert said.
Flamer said the election was a push toward further investment in the political leadership of Black women.
“We need to really support Black women in politics, and there may be initiatives that come out of it that specifically support Black women in politics because of what happened,” Flamer said.
