REUTERS
Kamala Harris’ greatest enemy is herself, and her most notable weakness is her inability to convey sincerity in her messaging to the public.
Her authenticity handicap has recently reflected in her dwindling polling data with black Americans, a historically reliable Democratic voter bloc.
The Breakfast Club’s Charlamagne Tha God invited Harris for an audio-only town hall in Detroit featuring prerecorded questions from the audience.
From the very first question, her believability came under scrutiny by Charlamagne.
“Folks say you come off as very scripted and like to stick to your talking points,” which she promptly interrupted him by saying “Some people would call that disciplined.”
Charlamagne continued, “What do you say to the people that say you stay on the talking points?”
“I would say you’re welcome!” Vice President Harris immediately responded.
When pressed on the topic of reparations, a common topic that many black Americans care about, she summed up her interest in pursuing it with an avoidant answer: “It has to be studied.”
Then immigration, and another dodge.
“Doesn’t the Biden administration have to take some blame for the border though? A lot of blame because for the first three years y’all did get a lot of wrong with the border?” Charlemagne asked.
“The first bill we passed . . . the first thing we dropped was a bill to fix the broken immigration system,” Harris replied, about a bill introduced just recently after years of failure.
Not swaying listeners
What summed up this interview was how she addressed a concern of a caller who questioned the motives to send money abroad in abundance when there are many pressing issues that remain here:
“We can do it all!” she claimed, unconvincingly.
If the objective of this interview was to stem the noticeable flow of black voters who are disinterested in the Democratic National Committee’s choice for president, it failed massively.
When we vote for any given candidate, we want to have faith that what they’re claiming to advocate for won’t go at the wayside once they gain power.
Far too frequently black voters have watched Democratic politicians of all colors utilize urban media to say the buzzwords and catchphrases that gain our attention and then disappear for four years without a commitment to their word.
Because of this phenomenon, black voters have grown skeptical of who stands before them claiming to have their best interest in mind.
Kamala faces an uphill battle of regaining black voters who are at minimum skeptical because she exudes inauthenticity and everything about her appears to be performative.
No guaranteed votes
Our history of being used for the benefit of identity politics has many of us wanting a solid answer about if the Kamala Harris we’re witnessing is genuine or someone who was crafted by the Democratic Party elite to appeal to us.
Kamala Harris doesn’t have enough trust equity built up to be believed about her so-called positions or advocacy and the superficial answers she provides only exacerbates our doubt.
Throughout her entire interview, Kamala often said the right things that black voters could expect to hear from a Democratic politician seeking office: The difference is that we don’t believe her.
There is something about her that doesn’t pass the smell test.
The days of blindly voting for a party due to tradition or choosing a candidate only because they happen to resemble you are starting to come to an end.
Black Americans are increasingly tired of “shout out” politics, where they conjure up black people to push an agenda that doesn’t benefit us and refuse to provide us anything of substance for using our namesake.
Kamala Harris appears to be much of the same that has failed us before and a chameleon who has studied what we want without a realistic plan to execute it.
This election is now a referendum on Kamala Harris’ authenticity and voters of all colors who are on the fence must ask themselves if they believe her more than they hate Trump.
Will the real Kamala Harris please stand up?
Adam B. Coleman is the author of “Black Victim to Black Victor” and founder of Wrong Speak Publishing.