Jamaicans aren’t generally patriotic, but they are nationalistic. This can be seen in their attitudes toward their global diaspora—one of the largest in proportion to the home country’s domestic population, and primarily based in the United States. The members of the diaspora tend to cling to their heritage, even through the second and third generations. Jamaicans at home also value the diaspora, whether for remittances, access to a shipping address for online shopping, or for the glory Jamaicans abroad seemingly bring to the island’s reputation and already outsized global stature. Claiming and fawning over high-achieving Americans, Brits, and Canadians with Jamaican ancestry is a normal aspect of the ongoing writing and rewriting of the country’s narrative, even where those Jamaican descendants’ ties to the island are nominal at best.
Case in point: Across the island right now, there are state-sponsored billboards celebrating the Emmy win of US-born-to-Jamaican-parents actress Sheryl Lee Ralph. Current US Olympian sprinter Gabby Thomas is also highly regarded in her father’s native Jamaica, even as she competes against Jamaican athletes. Profiles of the Jamaican diaspora and its descendants making strides in sports, media, academia, industry, and politics are a regular feature in the newspapers and in Jamaican social media. Yet there is a notable lack of support for Kamala Harris, now the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, even though her father, the Stanford economist Donald Harris, hails from Jamaica.
A day after President Biden withdrew from the 2024 cycle and endorsed Harris, The Gleaner, Jamaica’s main newspaper, ran an anodyne, if misleading, piece headlined, “Jamaican Community Backs Harris for US Presidency.” The torrent of negative comments from Jamaicans on social media called that headline into question.
“The overwhelming majority of comments … expressed outrage.”
The article’s author interviewed residents of Brown’s Town in rural St. Ann parish, Donald Harris’s hometown. These interview subjects expressed pride in the unparalleled achievement of “Jamaica’s daughter.” The online respondents to The Gleaner’s article, however, reflected a different view. The overwhelming majority of comments, mostly in Jamaican Creole, expressed outrage at the outlet for ignoring the general, steadfast apathy toward Harris among Jamaicans. The sentiments could be summarized as: She doesn’t know us, we don’t know her, and we certainly do not claim her.
Jamaicans might have shown more excitement if Harris had more policy substance and personal authenticity, buthee most notable characteristic is her malleability. The average person, whether in Jamaica or the United States, would be hard-pressed to articulate any clear vision associated with Harris. This isn’t because she has failed to express certain views, but that the ones she has expressed have continued to change.
Since becoming veep, she has earned a reputation for trafficking in platitudes, the signature one being her bizarre slogan about being “unburdened by what has been.” She hasn’t even mastered that essential political skill of saying nothing while appearing to say something: The nothingness of everything she says is actually her most obvious and distinguishing attribute.
Biden’s selection of Harris as running mate was meant as succor to those voters who would wish to see, or claim to wish to see, someone of her sex and hue achieve high political rank. Such people believe this represents progress, an idea on which the Democratic Party is largely premised. But selling “progress” requires a perception of credibility and charisma. Harris has neither.
In throwing its support behind Harris for the Democratic nomination, the party’s establishment is likely seeking continuity with the Biden administration, while toning down its populist elements on trade and antitrust. That is the appeal of Harris to the party donors and grandees. But will that be enough to mobilize the wider Democratic voter base?
The voter bases of both parties run on vibes. Donald Trump has long-held views on immigration and trade, but is otherwise politically malleable, something his voters are happy to accept because his presidential bid, too, is all about vibes. The Democratic base responds to the feel-good “hope and change” vibes that Barack Obama rode to victory twice, but those notions were shored up by Obama’s ability to connect with voters and inspire hope. He had taken initially unpopular stances, such as on the war in Iraq. Harris simply can’t generate the same genuine excitement, because there is nothing substantive to undergird it. It is too obvious to too many that she is merely a vessel for whatever the Democratic Party’s current priorities happen to be—a deficiency Donald Harris’s compatriots in Jamaica haven’t failed to notice.
The media attempt to create buzz around her candidacy can only succeed in boosting her poll numbers for so long before she must field tough questions about the rapidly escalating situation in the Middle East, her record on border control as vice president, and growing instability in the international financial markets. If her responses fail to impress, as they have in the past, “Kamala-mania” will prove as hollow as a dry coconut, and her campaign’s momentum will vanish as rapidly as it appeared.