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Stacey Abrams spoke out about the disdain for Black women in politics in an interview on MSNBC, citing the criticism Vice President Kamala Harris continues to receive.
The Democratic gubernatorial candidate for Georgia sat down for an interview on MSNBC’s Inside with Jen Psaki on Sunday (November 5) and discussed the ongoing trials in Fulton County of former president Donald Trump and his alleged co-conspirators over interference related to the 2020 presidential election. Before ending the interview, Psaki brought up Vice President Kamala Harris.
“I wanted to ask you about the vice president,” Psaki began. “She’s been subjected to a huge amount of scrutiny her entire time in office. I can think of a lot of reasons why, but I wanted to ask you – as a prominent woman of color who’s run for office, do you think she would be receiving these same critiques if she was a white man?” Abrams wasted little time in responding.
“No.”
Abrams continued: “We will always question the person behind the person, but we cannot ignore the misogyny and racism remain very prevalent in our politics. For those behaviors that don’t rise to either misogyny or racism, there’s also just a difference. Our expectations are set for the traditional white male vice president. It’s what it’s always been. We are not always great with new. But more importantly, I know if you filter through the critiques, if you think about how she is castigated, it is inextricably linked to race and gender. I applaud the poise with which she has responded.”
Currently, poll numbers for Vice President Harris have been meager with a 37 percent approval rating with a 52 percent disapproval rating as reported by FiveThirtyEight. This comes as Harris has been steadily working to protect voting rights as well as to fight against the rollback of abortion rights in the country. In addition, she has been outspoken in fighting for more federal resources to be distributed to Black businesses and HBCUs.
Abrams also spoke at length about the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and the militant Hamas organization, and also about the work she’s doing with her Fair Fight organization in Georgia. The group is currently embroiled in a lawsuit against a Texas-based group, True The Vote, alleging it attempted to intimidate 340,000 Georgia voters.
