I went from reading The Vice President's Black Wife to reading about our first Black (and female!) vice president. The Truths We Hold: An American Journey by Kamala Harris sat on my shelf for a while. I thought I picked the perfect time to read it … if and only if I finished by the election. Just in case. I couldn’t fathom finishing my hopeful doodles if she didn’t win.

And yet here we are.

Though I braced myself for this outcome, but it was somehow still shocking. I hoped this post might be a celebration of our first female Black/Asian president. Instead it’s a collection of doodles that leaves me confused… how was the mic-violating, racist felon misogynist a better pick?

[big exhale]

As Kamala Harris herself says, “Let’s not throw up our hands when it’s time to roll up our sleeves.”

Take a flip through my sketchbook.

Then scroll through a random collection of doodles inspired by this book. There’s so much more to this book and to Harris — I encourage you to read it.

America must get to work

In the words of Thurgood Marshall: “Democracy … cannot flourish amid fear. Liberty cannot bloom amid hate. Justice cannot take root amid rage. America must get to work… We must dissent from indifference… We must dissent from the fear, the hatred, and the mistrust.”

His words reminded me of John Quincy Adams’ warning: “Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes exhausts and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet, that did not commit suicide.”

Yikes.

From The Humanity Archive: Recovering the Soul of Black History from a Whitewashed American Myth, by Jermaine Fowler

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Her mom’s advice

Shyamala, Kamala’s mother, doled out some valuable advice over the years:

“Don’t do anything half-assed.”
“Fight systems in a way that causes them to be fairer, and don’t be limited by what has always been.”
“Test the hypothesis.”
“You may be the first. Don’t be the last.”

(See the ironing board/standing desk in the bottom right? Wish I knew that hack when I started working from home at the beginning of the pandemic!)

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The difference between getting convictions and having conviction

What about being convicted? Asking for a friend.

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Serendipity

I’m always tickled when there’s overlap with books I’m reading — particularly since I’m generally reading both fiction and non-fiction at the same time. Here, the overlaps are bummers. This book and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (have you read it??) by Gabrielle Zevin both mention:

Japanese American internment during WWII
Same-sex weddings in San Francisco that were then invalidated

Which leads me to my next (and most long-winded) point…

“It’s just four years.”

I’ve heard this in a response to my election disappointment. Yes, it’s just four years. Only, it’s kinda not. Checks and balances provide little comfort these days.

We have the ability to really upend things for people in profound ways in short periods of time…. with effects that can last years, decades, or centuries.

Don’t believe me?

In 1776, all adults in NJ could vote!*

Not limited to white male adults. Unfortunately, women tended to vote Federalist which was suuuuper inconvenient for Anti-Federalists. Rules were changed to limit voting to white men, keeping Anti-Federalists in power and propelling James Madison to the White House.

But then four years later when Madison left office, they reversed that ruling and revived voting rights for all. Hooray!

Just kidding!

The 15th Amendment passed nearly 100 years later (in 1870), allowing Black men to vote.
The 19th Amendment passed 144 effing years later (in 1920), allowing women to vote.

So, basically four years. Plus 140.

Doodle inspired by Travels with George: In Search of Washington and His Legacy, by Nathaniel Philbrick.

*To be clear, it’s a little messier than that. One needed to live in NJ at least a year. And have at least 50 pounds, which seems a skosh** limiting. But not so limiting that it didn’t have a big impact on election results.

**Speaking of people who have had their rights trampled on: I just learned that “skosh” comes from a Japanese word shortened by our servicemen stationed there after WWII.

Utahn women could vote in 1870! And then they couldn’t.

In the spirit of transparency, it was pre-Utah. Not a state yet, but Utahn* women could vote! When Republicans accused Grover Cleveland of being pro-polygamy, he shot them down in his annual message, stressing the importance of family. Eventually, the federal government stripped Utah of some of it’s control and in the process got rid of voting rights for women. Polygamous men were also disenfranchised. Didn’t matter how many, if any, husbands a woman had.

*I just learned that people and things from Utah are called Utahn. Going forward, I will be talking about Utah as much as possible so I can use my new word often. Just used in three times in my first go-round! Exciting times!

Inspired by A Man of Iron: The Turbulent Life and Improbable Presidency of Grover Cleveland, by Troy Senik

There was substantial Black representation in the government in the 1870s.

Starting with Hiram Revels, the first Black senator, and Josiah Walls, the first Black congressman from Florida. There were 16 Black congressmen serving in that decade! I’m not get into Rutherford B. Hayes’ compromise that lead to the dismantling of Reconstruction (see 5 Reasons to Love the Electoral College). Or that “Pitchfork Ben” Tillman didn’t like that there were more Black voters than white, so he tipped the scales with an “Understanding Clause” — a quiz designed to disqualify Black voters.

Guess when the second Black congressman served from Florida? 19-freaking-92.
Guess when the south had another Black senator? 2013. 2013!

From The Humanity Archive: Recovering the Soul of Black History from a Whitewashed American Myth, by Jermaine Fowler

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Integrated schools

Coincidentally, I learned in my last book that Richard Mentor Johnson and Julia Chinn ran one of the first integrated schools in the country. (It was a money-grab.) Kamala Harris and her sister didn’t know it at the time, but they were a part of a national desegregation experiment.

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‘merica for ‘mericans

The Know Nothing Almanac and True Americans’ Manual for 1855 … gross gross gross. Wouldn’t it be nice if we learned our lesson about spewing vile hatred and embraced ideals like loving your neighbor and whatnot? Sigh… I admittedly haven’t read either document, but I suspect that there’s more than a little overlap with this and Project 2025.

Gentle reminder: it wasn’t that long ago that we needed to rely on DNA testing to reunite families we broke apart:

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Health & poverty

Opponents of Obamacare likened it to taxation by King George III, and I welcome any opportunity to draw King George III no matter how ridiculous.

The U.S. is one of only 13 countries with maternal mortality rates that have worsened in the past 25 years, according to this book which was published in 2019 sooo, yeah…
Mark Twain was asked what “would the people of earth be without women?” He answered “they would be scarce, sir. Almighty scarce.”
Life expectancy is going down in parts of the country. Being poor reduces lifespan by a decade — more than smoking!
Black babies are twice as likely to die than their white counterparts — that’s a bigger gap than when slavery was legal.

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Despots and tyrants and dictators, oh my!

…“A commitment to democracy… a rejection of despots and tyrants and dictators who rule their countries based on self-interest alone, not in the interests of the people they are meant to serve.”

Gulp.

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Sigh…

Ok, I’m both losing steam and getting angry. A few more maddening stats and then I’m going to wrap this up:

When adjusted for inflation, the “starvation wages” Dr. Martin Luther King spoke of in 1968 are actually higher than current minimum wage.
For every buck white dudes make, we’ve heard that women make 80¢ (on average)… if they’re white. Black woman make 63¢. And Latinas make just 54¢. For Black women, that means (on average) they make $21,000 less annually than white men.
Though productivity has increased 73% between 1973-2013, wages have only increased 9% during that time. And CEOs earning more than 300x their average workers doesn’t seem to be a problem.
Ronnie Reagan’s love of Big Business meant tax cuts for corporations and shareholders, wage increases squashed, reduction in pesky government oversight, etc., etc.

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Do not be overwhelmed.

Too late!

Kamala Harris cautions “It is the very nature of this fight for civil rights and justice and equality that whatever gains we make, they will not be permanent. So we must be vigilant. Understand that, do not despair. Do not be overwhelmed. Do not throw up your hands when it is time to roll up our sleeves and fight for who we are.”