Since Kamala Harris was elected as Vice President, there are now no Black women in the U.S. Senate. But, as history shows us, this isn’t the first time. “The truth is, in the Senate’s 230-year history, we’ve only ever had two Black female senators,” explains Daily Show correspondent Dulcé Sloan. “Kamala Harris and Carol Mosely Braun.”
As Stefanie Brown James, co-founder of The Collective PAC — an organisation working to address under-representation of the Black community in politics — tells Sloan, “Black women vote more than anybody else in this country. So many of the issues we’re voting on impact our families.”
Brown James added that she is working with the Black Campaign School that is training candidates throughout the U.S., teaching people everything they need to know about running statewide. People are taught how to engage with voters, how to raise money, and how to wear your hair when you’re a Black woman running for office (the answer: “Girl, wear it however you want to.”)
So, why have so few Black women been elected to the Senate? “As a woman, the sexism issue is key. Most of our U.S. senators are male,” says Brown James. “Number two, racism. It does exist in America. You have the fact that this woman has to go across the state, talk to so many different voters, some of whom have never actually had a conversation with a Black person. That alone is showing you there’s a lot of hurdles she has to overcome.”
