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A review by domskeac
The Truths We Hold: An American Journey by Kamala Harris
3.0
One must remember that she wrote this for her 2020 presidential run, because it doesn’t hold up. It has really aged poorly to the point of being confusing. For example, she refuses to name that Trump is in power (that was trendy then, to not say his name like he was Voldemort), so she keeps saying “this administration” or “the current administration” which just leads to a confused 2024 reader like myself tripping up and thinking she’s is constantly criticizing *the current administration*—the Biden/Harris administration. (If only!)
This book also doesn’t hold up to who she has been as a Vice President. She didn’t do most of the things she said she would (her immigrant rights record is terrible compared to how she talks about immigrants in this — at one point she chastises someone for telling immigrants not to come to the U.S. and that is famously one of the things she did as VP).
She has not been accountable to the very people and legacy she claims as her own: she begins with lifting up this quote from Thurgood Marshall: “…We must dissent from the apathy…” In the same chapter that she says she joined protests against South African apartheid in college, she says: “…I knew part of making change was what I’d seen all my life. Surrounded by adults, shouting and marching, and demanding justice from the outside. But I also knew there was an important role on the inside, sitting at the table when the decisions were being made. When activists came marching and banging on the doors, I wanted to be on the other side to let them in.” LOL! She has discouraged and girlboss-silenced protestors around Palestine like it’s a marketing stunt.
She also quotes Baldwin: “There is never a time in the future in which we will work out our salvation. The challenge is in the moment, the time is always now.” And yet she tells us we just need to get her in office first before she does the work of the people (like an arms embargo)? Nope. I wish she would follow her own writing.
Her family history of costly, connected activism is so captivating and yet she seems so very disconnected from reflecting the people she says took her to protests in a stroller. It’s too cognitively dissonant for me. What a bummer.
This book also doesn’t hold up to who she has been as a Vice President. She didn’t do most of the things she said she would (her immigrant rights record is terrible compared to how she talks about immigrants in this — at one point she chastises someone for telling immigrants not to come to the U.S. and that is famously one of the things she did as VP).
She has not been accountable to the very people and legacy she claims as her own: she begins with lifting up this quote from Thurgood Marshall: “…We must dissent from the apathy…” In the same chapter that she says she joined protests against South African apartheid in college, she says: “…I knew part of making change was what I’d seen all my life. Surrounded by adults, shouting and marching, and demanding justice from the outside. But I also knew there was an important role on the inside, sitting at the table when the decisions were being made. When activists came marching and banging on the doors, I wanted to be on the other side to let them in.” LOL! She has discouraged and girlboss-silenced protestors around Palestine like it’s a marketing stunt.
She also quotes Baldwin: “There is never a time in the future in which we will work out our salvation. The challenge is in the moment, the time is always now.” And yet she tells us we just need to get her in office first before she does the work of the people (like an arms embargo)? Nope. I wish she would follow her own writing.
Her family history of costly, connected activism is so captivating and yet she seems so very disconnected from reflecting the people she says took her to protests in a stroller. It’s too cognitively dissonant for me. What a bummer.