Not Like Us”: The Rush to Crown Kamala and the Trump ‘Dictatorship’ Fears

October 28,2024

“Not Like Us”: The Rush to Crown Kamala and the Trump ‘Dictatorship’ Fears

© Ogbonna Hagins for Philly Word Magazine and Freedmen’s Journal 2.0

Alright, America. Here we go again, handing out crowns and shouting “dictator!” from the rooftops. Vice President Kamala Harris is being lifted up as the future savior, while the Freedmen community looks over her past and just sees… representation? Maybe. But it’s time to get real, as Kendrick Lamar put it best in Not Like Us—“We don’t share the same bloodline.” And yet, some Freedmen keep dreaming they’ve found someone just like them.

A quick look back shows Harris’s history isn’t exactly deep in the trenches with Freedmen causes. She’s a former California prosecutor who wasn’t exactly shouting for justice reform. If anything, her record hit hard on communities that looked like the ones backing her today.

“They think it’s sweet ’til they can’t make bail,” Kendrick might say. As it turns out, the policies she’s known for are about as close to Freedmen’s needs as she is to a 1% support rate which… well, she’s been there before.

But just as folks are ready to put her on a pedestal, there’s also the hype machine gearing up for Donald Trump’s so-called “dictatorship.” The same guy that took out an ad calling for the heads of five wrongfully accused men is now being labeled as a tyrant. Yet here’s a twist—dictator talk might make great headlines, but it’s not exactly rooted in that little thing called the Constitution. Last time we checked, checks and balances still work. Sure, Trump talks a big game, but a monarchy it is not. Kendrick said it best: “I am not the answer, I’m just a man, a flawed one.” Trump’s got flaws, but king he is not.

So, here we are, with a community hyping a leader who might not be who they think she is and fears of a comeback king who’s got constitutional speed bumps in his path. The Freedmen community deserves leaders with more than an image. Until then, they might want to replay Kendrick’s “Not Like Us” and remember: sometimes the ones who look like allies aren’t in the same fight at all.