By Genoa Barrow | OBSERVER Senior Staff Writer

Black women across the country are expressing feelings of disbelief, devastation and disenfranchisement after the results of the Nov. 5 election saw former President Donald Trump emerge victorious. 

Trump’s success meant a major loss for Vice President Kamala Harris and the scores of Black women who wanted to see her become the first woman and first Black woman president. California Black women were hit particularly hard as they worked tirelessly in support of Harris. Before serving with President Joe Biden, the Oakland native served in the U.S. Senate from 2017-2021 and as California’s attorney general from 2011-2017. Before that she was San Francisco’s district attorney from 2004-2011.

The California Black Women’s Collective, a statewide group that represents a wide range of industries and activism, hosted several online call-to-action type meetings during Harris’ presidential campaign. Members also took to the virtual space on Veterans Day, leading a session on election results and ways forward.

The California Black Women’s Collective started around 2019 as Keep the Seat, which pushed for Gov. Gavin Newsom to appoint a Black woman to the Senate seat Harris vacated when she joined the presidential ticket.

“We knew that Black women, particularly Black women in California, were concerned about everything that happened and we wanted to convene our safe space,” Kellie Todd Griffin, president of the collective, said of the meeting that drew 1,200 registrants.​

“I think we all lost something last Tuesday,” founding member Yvonne Wheeler said. Wheeler is the first African American woman to serve as president of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor.

“It was very hurtful,” she continued. “I was angry and I have all these mixed feelings about the outcome of the election. I’m still wearing my Harris shirt because she ran a flawless campaign. At the end of the day, America was not ready for a Black woman in the White House.”

Forward Thinking

Carolyn Fowler, who serves as controller for the California Democratic Party, is already looking ahead.

“I’m going to grieve, as we all should, but I’m also culling ballots because there’s some congressional seats that we can possibly win to shield us from some of the concerns that we rightly have about who’s going to be in charge,” Fowler said during the online call.

“I’m not into the blame game. I’m into already making calls,” she continued.

Fowler is in roll-up-your-sleeves mode.

“What’s our strategy?” she said. “We need to be together. Who’s going to be the next chair? I’m asking California members to come together and have a meeting … so that we go in as a united front. I’m working on our two-year plan. People want to say, ‘In four years.’ No, we need to have a two-year plan to turn over some of these seats. I hope people will stay involved.”

Members say building on strides made during the Harris campaign is crucial.

“We had some wins and we had some losses, but the reality is, we still have great momentum,” Todd Griffin said. “We have Black women representing us up and down the state and we know that in two years, there will be the governor’s race and all of his constitutional officers, those seats will also be up.

“We need to be ready. The only way we are going to defend the madness of [Trump] is making sure California has the right leaders at the top.”

Difficult Conversations

Black women who supported Harris have said they felt betrayed by white women who promised to stand in solidarity and vote against Trump based on his past disrespect of women and actions in dismantling women’s reproductive rights. The ballots showed otherwise, with the former president garnering a strong showing among older white women voters.

A large number of Black men and young African Americans also voted for Trump, citing disappointment in the current economy, jobs, support for immigrants, and the homeless crisis.

Local psychologist Dr. Kristee Haggins isn’t speaking to one of her own brothers at the moment because he voted for Trump.

“I just can’t be in conversation with him right now because it’s just too much,” Dr. Haggins said. “Not everyone is on the same page.”

Fortunately, the local mental health provider has been talking and sharing with others. Dr. Haggins is a co-founder of Safe Black Space, a local organization of practitioners, community advocates and activists, faith leaders, educators and others who demand justice in instances of racism and oppression. The group offers monthly community healing circles. Its last session was expanded to focus on the Nov. 5 election.

“It’s disheartening,” Dr. Haggins said of Trump’s return to the White House. “To have someone like Trump in the office who is so anti-everything, it presents a risk to our well-being, whether it’s our physical or mental or financial well-being and all the things that come with that.”

Participation doubled for the recent session.

“It was powerful,” Dr. Haggins said.

She said she felt sick the night before the election and the day after.

“I couldn’t sleep, couldn’t really eat, couldn’t concentrate,” she said. “I was really all in my feelings around what this might mean, or does mean, and in conversations with others I was hearing the same types of things. What we talk about with Safe Black Space is this idea of racial stress and trauma. That is exactly what we, or many of us, are experiencing right now. It’s not as though we have had our house burned down necessarily, but it mimics the symptoms of what it feels like when the rug is pulled from underneath you.”

Many Black women have been saying Harris’ loss isn’t a setback, but a setup for success. “Now, more than ever, we need to be coming together,” Dr. Haggins said, “I’m hopeful, actually, that in some ways, this will provide an opportunity for us to do so.”

When the emotions of the moment clear away, Dr. Haggins believes it’s essential to be vigilant and proactive.

“We cannot change it,” she said of the election. “It’s that Harriet Tubman quote where she says, ‘I freed 1,000 slaves and I would have freed another 1,000 if they knew they were slaves.’ It’s that mentality. We can’t get all caught up, or I encourage us not to get too caught up, in what that means, but rather doing what we can from wherever we are to create the change that we need for ourselves and our community.”

There’s a lot to process. President-elect Trump and his “Make America Great Again” supporters have hinted at retaliation against those who voted against him. Black women, having been very vocal in mobilizing to support Harris, are bracing for an uptick in race-based violence and retribution. Black college students across the country, including some in California, already have reported receiving ominous, and anonymous, text messages telling them that a bus would be arriving to transport them to a cotton plantation, hinting at a return to slavery under the Trump administration. The FBI reportedly is investigating.

Discussions of post-election solutions have included seeking legal protections, gun ownership, improving physical fitness, the need for more Black mental health providers, strengthening individual and community finances, and creating better educational opportunities for Black youth.

“It’s about creating whatever avenues we may need to take care of ourselves,” Dr. Haggins said. “There’s multiple strategies for how we’re going to get through these next four years and then beyond that. The things that [Trump’s] going to put in place reverberate, so where do we step up and step in?”

Being engaged in the political process matters, Dr. Haggins said.

“People need to be involved in politics and some of the other people who are running for city council, or better, maybe run for their own school system boards. We’ve got to do it because nobody’s coming to save us.”