The Biden administration has successfully flipped key American states and now have one step into the White House (hurray!) but I’m going to give you my short and pragmatic view on this situation.
Yes, I’ve been expressing my elation to see a blatant, unapologetic racist out of a position of great power and influence, but this win doesn’t mean that all the problems America faces will be fixed. Trump was not only bold in his insular views on race, he was also happy to be antagonistic with it. This resonated with nearly 50% of the country. Literally half of America doesn’t want to see societal change.
Although I’m a British citizen, my father and many other family members are American. I’ve seen first-hand, the negative impact of the Trump administration on progressive American citizens. Once a nation proud of what they represent, the last four years has seen a shift in attitudes and rightly so. Who would want to stand with a leader who spews out polarised, conservative views masked as innocent patriotism to a diverse nation?
As brilliant as this win is, there’s also the massive task of building trust. Despite all the celebrations that have come with the appointment of the first Black and Indian American woman VP Kamala Harris, she herself has a history much to be desired. She has made great steps to change her stance on many policies she introduced that negatively impacted people of colour, but the question stands, what was her motivation for this change?
Harris ran for presidency in this year’s Democratic primary but struggled to gain traction in the large field. Will everything be OK just because Biden and Harris are in power? No; not at all. This is just the next step in an ongoing and bumpy start/stop journey to building an America that takes responsibility for its bloodstained history.
With the spotlight of the world on them, I hope and pray the next four years brings about some of the change the world has been advocating in 2020. Twenty twenty is the year of accountability. If we don’t get it right now, we’ll never get it right full stop.
Good luck America.
Sending light and love always.
DiDi x
Words from a Black Woman 