My name is Samirali Kristeen Hind Masoud. I am Palestinian and voted for Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.
More specifically, I am an Afro-Puerto Rican and Palestinian sophomore from the Bronx attending this university solely because of the Higher Education Opportunity Program. My father is fully Palestinian from Deir-Dibwan and has spent his life living between the West Bank and the Bronx. My mother is a racially Black, ethnically Puerto Rican woman who has spent her entire life in Brooklyn. My mother is unequivocally the most intelligent person I know and the woman I will spend the rest of my life trying to live up to. My mother is extremely proud of both her Blackness and her Latinidad; above all else, she leans into her Blackness because that is how she is perceived.
I grew up in a home with two parents who embraced each other’s cultures entirely; they became so intertwined that it was difficult to tell them apart. My father adores my mother’s “pollo guisado,” which she always cooks with the olive oil my “sitti” (grandmother) mails us from our olive trees back home in Deir-Dibwan. While I am grateful to belong to two cultures, finding myself caught in a political debate between my two identities was the most difficult part of this election. Suddenly, fighting for one meant neglecting the other, a battle I had never encountered before.
I voted with my Blackness, my Latinidad, my queerness and my womanhood on the ballot.
Upon hearing Harris would be taking former President Joe Biden’s place in the election, my mother was ecstatic. She called me gushing with pride at the prospect of a Black woman as our president. Both of my parents were supportive of Harris’ candidacy, fearing for Palestine’s future regardless of who was elected. However, they also saw that so much more was on the ballot. Members of my community have both tried and failed to convince me that there was a better solution for Palestine than voting for Harris. I refused to abstain from voting. I refused to vote for President Donald Trump. I refused to vote for a third party, as it is equivalent to not voting at all. I have yet to be presented with a solution to take us one step closer to freeing Palestine while protecting our constitutional rights. Ultimately, while many told me I “selfishly” engaged in an act of harm reduction and actively voted against Palestine, I do not regret the decision I made.
I voted with my Blackness, my Latinidad, my queerness and my womanhood on the ballot. Realistically or pessimistically, depending on who’s asking, neither candidate would have freed Palestine overnight. However, I am confident that Harris would not have attempted to dismantle the Department of Education, conduct nationwide ICE raids and ask to empty Gaza for the U.S.’s interest. Trump recently talked about the fate of Gaza publicly, expressing greater interest in its real estate value and economic potential for the United States than the fate of the people, the culture and the healing. While Harris is undoubtedly complicit in this genocide, so is the man currently in office, urging Israel to “finish the job” by turning the mass gravesite into a resort.
To deny that we follow a two-party system is wishful thinking that serves no purpose. The choice was presented to me, and my hand was forced to choose between the lesser of two “evils;” however, there is no denying that one is far more evil than the other. Both candidates are inherently awful for Palestine. However, one is an overqualified Black woman who was committed to protecting our constitutional rights, and the other has gone trigger-happy signing executive orders.
Trump’s policies aimed at targeting minorities are a distraction by design. The majority of activists are Black, Latine, trans, LGBTQ+ and low-income people; therefore, by passing legislation aimed at stripping them of their human rights, you force them to fight for their own rights, which subsequently inhibits their ability to live freely. When your existence is under attack, fighting for Gaza becomes less of a priority.
Maybe I’m being pessimistic; maybe I have given up on seeing a free Palestine at the hands of the current administration in the United States.
Not only did I vote for Harris, but I also did not do so begrudgingly. Harris could not have single-handedly stopped the genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, but I was fairly confident in her ability to protect Americans. A vote for Kamala Harris enabled me to safely and freely receive my education, and in doing so, I could have continued to advocate for Palestine. It is not selfish to think of one’s own survival first and foremost.
Maybe I’m being pessimistic; maybe I have given up on seeing a free Palestine at the hands of the current administration in the United States. And no, you do not get to tell me how to feel. You do not get to tell me to hold onto hope and keep fighting. You will allow me to grieve, you will allow me to feel hopeless and you will allow me to feel cynical. My hope for a free Palestine has drastically declined over the past year, as it feels beyond my control. After months of protesting, calling, writing and mourning, I began to feel deflated. LGBTQ+ rights, trans rights, Black and Latine rights — those, however, felt secure in my hands when I submitted that ballot. But it all slipped through my fingers the moment I saw Pennsylvania turn red.
I am not here simply to convince you that I did the right thing, but rather to acknowledge the existence of intersectionality and the unique perspective I have because of my complex identity. I am here to tell Black people, but more importantly, Black women, Latines, immigrants, the lower class, the LGBTQ+ and trans people who did vote in the direction of harm reduction that they are not selfish for casting the vote that protects a right to existence. Do not let anyone guilt you for voting in the direction of legislation that protects you.
Palestinians certainly did not cost Harris the election. Anti-Blackness and misogynoir are so deeply embedded into the foundation of this country that I believe the United States was not ready for a Black woman to lead.
The Democrats’ poor planning cost the election. Harris was thrust into candidacy, and her campaign was centered around her position against Trump, which failed to connect her to a broader audience. Harris failed to reach those outside of her immediate orbit and failed to appeal to Americans who do not care as much about representation or racial issues. There was simply not enough time to build a campaign that did not fixate on counteracting all of Trump’s policies. In that case, how could Harris possibly swing voters who have had eight years to align themselves with Trump? As a result, Trump’s fear-mongering, isolating, hateful speech won him the election.
Stop using this loss to justify your Islamophobia. And to those of you who thought it was funny to say you are done boycotting and that Gazans are on their own — you are just as guilty as those who voted red. To conclude, it’s still Free Palestine. I just know a presidential candidate within a corrupt government will not be the one to do it. Pointing fingers at one another will never bring us closer to a free Palestine. Right now, we need empathy, organization and action.