Enforcing Eviction

When James Shelby , a Black St. Louis native who goes by the name Qadhafi , finally took off the shoes he had been wearing since he walked out of prison , his feet were bleeding .
It was August of 2019 , and he ’ d been walking from bus stop to bus stop for five days , through Kansas City ’ s summer rainstorms and muggy heat , trying to find a place to sleep without drawing the attention of the police or anyone else who might send him back to jail .
He was 58 years old @ @ @ @ @ @ @ incarceration he was homeless—a condition he was beginning to think his arrest record might keep him in forever .
“ Once you get in poverty , you reach a certain status at the bottom of the totem pole and you never get back up again , ” he said .
” It ’ s designed this way.
” Shelby had a small amount of money saved to resettle , but when he started looking for apartments—no easy task while learning to use the Internet for the first time—he was repeatedly rejected .
He @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that was the end of the conversation.
” Shelby reckons he could have found a place in a “ drug-ridden , crime-infested ” part of town , but worried that being in a poor and heavily policed neighborhood would be the fastest way to lose his newfound freedom .
It ’ s been a year , and Shelby now calls a 2007 Honda Odyssey home .
The car has been a lifeline , especially because a host of medical issues he developed in prison make it hard to walk .
But it ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ actual roof over his head , especially because he estimates he ’ s been stopped by the police over 10 times in the past year .
America Is Headed for an Unprecedented Wave of Evictions “ Every day of my life it ’ s about how ends are gon na meet , ” he said .
“ Housing should be a human right , everybody deserves a place to live to lay their head , that sense of security.
” Shelby is now organizing with Kansas City Tenants , which he hopes , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic begin to lift across the country , can help others from landing in his position .
With record rates of joblessness , housing experts warn of an “ avalanche ” of evictions and as many as 40 million people losing their homes by the end of the year .
The eviction crisis in the United States is not new : In 2016 , long before the pandemic , an average of four evictions were filed every minute .
But today , as those numbers threaten to escalate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ important to understand how they ’ re linked to another large-scale national reckoning : the one playing out on streets nationwide over policing .
Shelby ’ s experience dramatizes a much larger trend : Behind the moving trucks , changed locks , and dreams deferred lies a complex system of financial regulations and shadowy corporate entities all aided and abetted by the police .
As eviction courts gear up across the country , protests in response to police violence are still raging , putting America ’ s policing and housing crises on a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Hill has watched the mold crawl up the walls of her Los Angeles apartment , knowing that her landlord won ’ t do anything about it .
More recently , she ’ s added a bedbug infestation to her list of unaddressed complaints .
Hill suspects this isn ’ t a benign oversight : She says her landlord has even offered her money to move out .
Hill describes a pattern of neglect and pressure that ’ s often used to push low-income tenants out so that landlords can raise the rent and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they ’ re trying to make it uncomfortable for me so I ’ ll move , ” said Hill .
“ But I can ’ t go anywhere , I can ’ t afford anything else right now.
” Many renters are in situations like Hill ’ s : trapped in low-quality housing .
Hill is on Section 8 , a federal program that provides housing vouchers for very low-income , disabled , and elderly Americans .
Only one in four people who qualify for rental assistance receive it , and many spend @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
If they do receive it , landlords routinely discriminate against Section 8 applicants and the voucher has a rent ceiling that often relegates tenants to poor neighborhoods .
In Los Angeles County , where Hill lives , the availability of affordable housing , in the form of one-bedroom apartments under $ 1,000 , was cut by more than half from 2010 to 2018 .
She ’ s also been in her apartment for more than 15 years , which means rents have skyrocketed—today , the median rent in Los Angeles is nearly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Hill is Black , and she worries about the safety of her 15-year-old son in the neighborhoods they could afford if they had to move .
She is also disabled , multiplying the difficulties of finding a suitable apartment .
Hill ’ s situation is shared by many families across the nation : Between 1990 and 2017 , while nearly 11 million housing units were added to the national renting stock , affordable housing declined by nearly 4 million units .
The gains in housing net growth have been entirely limited to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ burdens .
The extra financial pressures of the pandemic—mainly unexpected medical bills and buying food in bulk—means Hill has missed rent payments , escalating her financial burden .
Hill ’ s case exemplifies why the term “ housing market ” is misleading .
In many markets , sellers are largely indifferent to who buys their product and profit is determined by costs , price , and quantity sold .
It makes sense to think that who rents which apartments is largely explained by what different people can afford .
But the housing market @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Desmond ( the author of Evicted ) and Nathan Wilmers find that poor and affluent renters pay similar amounts of rent .
Landlords renting to working-class renters face more financial risks because they ’ re more likely to have unstable incomes and social lives , presenting landlords with the risk of nonpayment or unexpected vacancies .
Yet , surprisingly , landlords renting to working-class tenants make more profit—nearly twice as much , adjusted for risk and additional costs—as those renting to the affluent .
American social systems work to protect the investments of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ risks of housing toward its most vulnerable people : low income , Black , brown , and Indigenous peoples .
A central enforcement mechanism of these social systems is the police .
How Law Enforcement and Landlords Work Together While working-class and affluent renters pay similar amounts of rent , they do not both get what they pay for .
When tenants apply for housing , landlords perform background checks which makes the most overpoliced—particularly Black and brown working-class people—vulnerable to discrimination and housing insecurity .
Hundreds of US-based companies profit from a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ companies comb through people ’ s credit records , criminal background information , and civil court filings involving disputes between tenants and their previous landlords .
They often use algorithms to generate reports on prospective tenants without any human review at all , a chancy process that can confuse the history of different people with the same names , producing errors that have led to many denied rental applications and hundreds of lawsuits .
These “ professional risk management ” companies then sell this information to landlords , who use it to screen @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Gretchen Purser argues that being listed on a database as having appeared in housing court functions much like a criminal record .
This kind of designation pushes prospective tenants out of the formal housing market and into more informal and less secure living situations .
Landlords avoid these “ listed ” tenants , trapping them in an expanding “ circle of dispossession.
” With each new piece of legal data gathered , whether a criminal record , poor credit , or an eviction , it becomes more likely that a renter will experience @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Caldwell , 42 , learned this the hard way during the six months of last year she spent homeless , bouncing from hotel to hotel in the Kansas City area with her husband and son .
Caldwell was in the middle of her second bout of cancer and desperate for stability .
She estimates they were applying for two or three apartments a week—racking up $ 30–60 application fees per person—during that period .
Every time , they were rejected .
“ They don ’ t even give you the opportunity to explain @ @ @ @ @ @ @ being is what they see on that application , that piece of paper , ” she said .
The cost of cancer treatment meant they had fallen behind on rent payments at their previous apartment .
According to Caldwell , they had a nonprofit lined up to help them with rent , but their landlord wasn ’ t willing to wait .
The eviction that followed has stuck to them like a scarlet letter .
“ We got to the point where we didn ’ t even worry about what area it was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ would have taken it , ” she said .
“ It doesn ’ t matter what condition the housing is in .
The law is in place that tells them they don ’ t have to [ rent to us ] and they don ’ t .
They don ’ t think about the humanity of it on the other side.
” Working-class renters with a history of incarceration , credit problems , or previous evictions are overwhelmingly more likely to be consigned to dilapidated and poorly maintained housing , when they can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ housing may be affordable precisely because it “ prices in ” neighborhood-level problems .
For example , the only homes some prospective tenants can afford may be in environmentally polluted , aggressively policed , or otherwise dangerous communities—as Evon Hill worried about with her son .
Both of these possibilities contribute to landlords ’ profit margins : Rather than charging significantly less rent , landlords can simply relegate the vulnerable to housing with a lower property value and use the tenants ’ lack of housing options as leverage to delay or deny needed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ open communication between police departments and property owners continues to shift risks from landlords to renters .
This trend in policy has been linked to the 1988 Anti-Drug Abuse Act signed under the Reagan Administration , which mandated that public housing authorities make any criminal activity ( including drug use , trafficking , or possession ) grounds for eviction of entire families , regardless of whether the activity was done by a family member or a guest .
Since then , a trend of “ crime-free housing ” proliferated across the country affecting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ trend functionally deputized landlords to use their ability to evict in the service of the broader apparatus of policing .
In one case , the Portland Police Bureau held a workshop teaching landlords to use the screening process .
John Campbell , the local businessman and “ anti-crime activist ” who led the workshop , went on to give such training to 12,000 people in Portland alone and held “ special sessions ” in 29 states .
Some laws allow or even require police departments to report 911 calls to the owners of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ these “ nuisance ordinances ” confront victims of domestic violence with the threat of eviction if they call police for help during a violent interaction—either directly ( as a result of the landlord ’ s response ) or indirectly ( if the call leads to incarceration and lost income ) .
Nuisance ordinances typically apply whether or not the resident was a victim of the nuisance activity .
Desmond reports in Evicted that the Milwaukee Police Department issued a nuisance property citation to residential property owners every 33 hours in 2008 and 2009 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ now working with the Kansas City tenants union in the hopes of helping people like her own family .
She says that since eviction courts have reopened in the state , their hotline has received multiple calls from women experiencing domestic violence who are unwilling to call the police for fear of eviction .
Geographer and prison abolitionist Ruth Wilson Gilmore defines racism as “ the state-sanctioned and/or extralegal production and exploitation of group-differentiated vulnerability to premature death.
” The housing market is an especially visceral example of the phenomenon Gilmore describes : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the rate of white renters in 17 states .
Families are also especially vulnerable .
Among renting households , nearly half of Black children and 44 percent of Hispanic children are either living in a house that is behind on rent or where there isn ’ t enough to eat , alongside 35 percent of white children who face these conditions .
A team of researchers ( including Desmond ) found that the presence of children makes a household more likely to receive an eviction judgement in Milwaukee ’ s court system .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ results in a vicious policing-housing insecurity cycle .
The housing system relegates families like Evon and her son to poor neighborhoods , which often have a higher police presence and levels of violence , linked to disinvestment , intergenerational trauma , and the structure of policing itself .
As a result , residents are more likely to get arrested or otherwise involved in activity that attracts the attention of police—exactly what Shelby feared if he selected the housing that allowed convicted felons .
This police presence may result in arrest or notification of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and thus in evictions , or giving the landlord leverage to prevent tenants from negotiating for maintenance or upkeep .
From surveillance to substandard housing to eviction , every stage and level of the housing market converts the social precarity of the racially targeted , overpoliced working class into security and profit for landlords .
Law Enforcement and the Crisis to Come Across the country , systems are gearing up for mass evictions : In Kansas City , they are already being conducted in person and by conference call .
Columbus , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ into a makeshift housing court in anticipation of continuing eviction proceedings .
In Wisconsin , the eviction ban expired on May 26 , and in June the city of Milwaukee ’ s eviction rate spiked 26 percent higher than the same month the previous year .
Alieza Durana of Princeton ’ s Eviction Lab called this “ the canary in the coal mine ” of the coming onslaught .
Of the 1,447 evictions recorded that month , 978 were in predominantly Black neighborhoods .
This is setting the stage for perhaps the most @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Depending on the state , sheriffs , constables , marshals , or police departments will be charged with executing legal writs of eviction : that is , with removing people and their belongings from their homes by force of law .
As tenants begin to organize in their own defense , the police are likely to be called in to defend landlords and private property .
We ’ re already seeing early evidence of this : In Washington , D.C. , management at one apartment called the police on organizers with the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the building as part of a campaign to cancel rent .
The police officers demanded that the organizers leave the building , enforcing building management ’ s internal policy on “ soliciting , ” in violation of the D.C.
Tenants ’ Bill of Rights , which expressly grants tenants the right to “ distribute literature , post information , and provide building access to an outside tenant organizer ” ( one of the organizers even lived in the building ) .
“ In the middle of a pandemic , we ’ re going @ @ @ @ @ @ @ communities to extract them from their houses , ” says Erica Smiley , the executive director of Jobs With Justice .
“ That ’ s basically the situation that we ’ re setting up , where people are facing the triple crisis of being black , being targeted by the police , and potentially being out on the street.
” The housing and policing crises are set to meet this year ’ s compound crisis of Covid-19 and climate change : Scientists forecast wildfires , hurricanes , and floods .
All of this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their socioeconomic fallout , will further test our political systems and will disproportionately affect the same marginalized people .
The fate of the world will depend on what our political systems work to protect .
The future of policing is at the heart of this question , since law enforcement institutions are those that at least nominally serve to protect public safety and security .
“ It ’ s dehumanizing not to be able to have your own place , it takes away your dignity , ” Shelby said .
“ Having a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ your head , that ’ s a base for everything being all right , to healing , to being able to develop a sense of self-worth.
” As Shelby explains , a person ’ s security is often reliant on one factor : a decent place to live .
But for too many people , the police are an obstacle to the security that law enforcement is ostensibly meant to provide .

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When James Shelby, a Black St. Louis native who goes by the name Qadhafi, finally took off the shoes he had been wearing since he walked out of prison, his feet were bleeding. It was August of 2019, and he’d been walking from bus stop to bus stop for five days, through Kansas City’s summer rainstorms and muggy heat, trying to find a place to sleep without drawing the attention of the police or anyone else who might send him back to jail. He was 58 years old, and after over two decades of incarceration he was homeless—a condition he was beginning to think his arrest record might keep him in forever.
“Once you get in poverty, you reach a certain status at the bottom of the totem pole and you never get back up again,” he said. ”It’s designed this way.”
Shelby had a small amount of money saved to resettle, but when he started looking for apartments—no easy task while learning to use the Internet for the first time—he was repeatedly rejected. He was a convicted felon, and “that was the end of the conversation.” Shelby reckons he could have found a place in a “drug-ridden, crime-infested” part of town, but worried that being in a poor and heavily policed neighborhood would be the fastest way to lose his newfound freedom.
It’s been a year, and Shelby now calls a 2007 Honda Odyssey home. The car has been a lifeline, especially because a host of medical issues he developed in prison make it hard to walk. But it’s a far cry from having an actual roof over his head, especially because he estimates he’s been stopped by the police over 10 times in the past year. the coming crisis America Is Headed for an Unprecedented Wave of Evictions Bryce Covert
“Every day of my life it’s about how ends are gonna meet,” he said. “Housing should be a human right, everybody deserves a place to live to lay their head, that sense of security.”
Shelby is now organizing with Kansas City Tenants, which he hopes, as eviction moratoriums put in place at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic begin to lift across the country, can help others from landing in his position. With record rates of joblessness, housing experts warn of an “avalanche” of evictions and as many as 40 million people losing their homes by the end of the year.
The eviction crisis in the United States is not new: In 2016, long before the pandemic, an average of four evictions were filed every minute. But today, as those numbers threaten to escalate to epidemic proportions, it’s important to understand how they’re linked to another large-scale national reckoning: the one playing out on streets nationwide over policing. Current Issue View our current issue
Shelby’s experience dramatizes a much larger trend: Behind the moving trucks, changed locks, and dreams deferred lies a complex system of financial regulations and shadowy corporate entities all aided and abetted by the police. As eviction courts gear up across the country, protests in response to police violence are still raging, putting America’s policing and housing crises on a collision course. Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann
Unaffordable Housing
For years, Evon Hill has watched the mold crawl up the walls of her Los Angeles apartment, knowing that her landlord won’t do anything about it. More recently, she’s added a bedbug infestation to her list of unaddressed complaints. Hill suspects this isn’t a benign oversight: She says her landlord has even offered her money to move out. Hill describes a pattern of neglect and pressure that’s often used to push low-income tenants out so that landlords can raise the rent and find new tenants.
“I think they’re trying to make it uncomfortable for me so I’ll move,” said Hill. “But I can’t go anywhere, I can’t afford anything else right now.”
Many renters are in situations like Hill’s: trapped in low-quality housing. Hill is on Section 8, a federal program that provides housing vouchers for very low-income, disabled, and elderly Americans. Only one in four people who qualify for rental assistance receive it, and many spend years on the Section 8 waiting list. If they do receive it, landlords routinely discriminate against Section 8 applicants and the voucher has a rent ceiling that often relegates tenants to poor neighborhoods.
In Los Angeles County, where Hill lives, the availability of affordable housing, in the form of one-bedroom apartments under $1,000, was cut by more than half from 2010 to 2018. She’s also been in her apartment for more than 15 years, which means rents have skyrocketed—today, the median rent in Los Angeles is nearly half the county’s median income. Hill is Black, and she worries about the safety of her 15-year-old son in the neighborhoods they could afford if they had to move. She is also disabled, multiplying the difficulties of finding a suitable apartment.
Hill’s situation is shared by many families across the nation: Between 1990 and 2017, while nearly 11 million housing units were added to the national renting stock, affordable housing declined by nearly 4 million units. The gains in housing net growth have been entirely limited to higher-income renters or renters with higher rent burdens.
The extra financial pressures of the pandemic—mainly unexpected medical bills and buying food in bulk—means Hill has missed rent payments, escalating her financial burden.
Hill’s case exemplifies why the term “housing market” is misleading. In many markets, sellers are largely indifferent to who buys their product and profit is determined by costs, price, and quantity sold. It makes sense to think that who rents which apartments is largely explained by what different people can afford. But the housing market for renters works differently. Sociologists Matthew Desmond (the author of Evicted) and Nathan Wilmers find that poor and affluent renters pay similar amounts of rent. Landlords renting to working-class renters face more financial risks because they’re more likely to have unstable incomes and social lives, presenting landlords with the risk of nonpayment or unexpected vacancies. Yet, surprisingly, landlords renting to working-class tenants make more profit—nearly twice as much, adjusted for risk and additional costs—as those renting to the affluent.
American social systems work to protect the investments of landlords by shifting the financial and social risks of housing toward its most vulnerable people: low income, Black, brown, and Indigenous peoples. A central enforcement mechanism of these social systems is the police.
How Law Enforcement and Landlords Work Together
While working-class and affluent renters pay similar amounts of rent, they do not both get what they pay for. When tenants apply for housing, landlords perform background checks which makes the most overpoliced—particularly Black and brown working-class people—vulnerable to discrimination and housing insecurity.
Hundreds of US-based companies profit from a web of nefarious private surveillance. Tenant-screening companies comb through people’s credit records, criminal background information, and civil court filings involving disputes between tenants and their previous landlords. They often use algorithms to generate reports on prospective tenants without any human review at all, a chancy process that can confuse the history of different people with the same names, producing errors that have led to many denied rental applications and hundreds of lawsuits. These “professional risk management” companies then sell this information to landlords, who use it to screen potential applicants—applicants like James Shelby.
Sociologist Gretchen Purser argues that being listed on a database as having appeared in housing court functions much like a criminal record. This kind of designation pushes prospective tenants out of the formal housing market and into more informal and less secure living situations. Landlords avoid these “listed” tenants, trapping them in an expanding “circle of dispossession.” With each new piece of legal data gathered, whether a criminal record, poor credit, or an eviction, it becomes more likely that a renter will experience housing insecurity in the future.
Tiana Caldwell, 42, learned this the hard way during the six months of last year she spent homeless, bouncing from hotel to hotel in the Kansas City area with her husband and son. Caldwell was in the middle of her second bout of cancer and desperate for stability. She estimates they were applying for two or three apartments a week—racking up $30–60 application fees per person—during that period. Every time, they were rejected.
“They don’t even give you the opportunity to explain or hold a conversation. Your whole being is what they see on that application, that piece of paper,” she said.
The cost of cancer treatment meant they had fallen behind on rent payments at their previous apartment. According to Caldwell, they had a nonprofit lined up to help them with rent, but their landlord wasn’t willing to wait. The eviction that followed has stuck to them like a scarlet letter.
“We got to the point where we didn’t even worry about what area it was in or how it looked, we would have taken it,” she said. “It doesn’t matter what condition the housing is in. The law is in place that tells them they don’t have to [rent to us] and they don’t. They don’t think about the humanity of it on the other side.”
Working-class renters with a history of incarceration, credit problems, or previous evictions are overwhelmingly more likely to be consigned to dilapidated and poorly maintained housing, when they can find it at all. Even well-maintained housing may be affordable precisely because it “prices in” neighborhood-level problems. For example, the only homes some prospective tenants can afford may be in environmentally polluted, aggressively policed, or otherwise dangerous communities—as Evon Hill worried about with her son. Both of these possibilities contribute to landlords’ profit margins: Rather than charging significantly less rent, landlords can simply relegate the vulnerable to housing with a lower property value and use the tenants’ lack of housing options as leverage to delay or deny needed repairs.
Once housing is granted, open communication between police departments and property owners continues to shift risks from landlords to renters. This trend in policy has been linked to the 1988 Anti-Drug Abuse Act signed under the Reagan Administration, which mandated that public housing authorities make any criminal activity (including drug use, trafficking, or possession) grounds for eviction of entire families, regardless of whether the activity was done by a family member or a guest. Since then, a trend of “crime-free housing” proliferated across the country affecting public and private housing alike. This trend functionally deputized landlords to use their ability to evict in the service of the broader apparatus of policing. In one case, the Portland Police Bureau held a workshop teaching landlords to use the screening process. John Campbell, the local businessman and “anti-crime activist” who led the workshop, went on to give such training to 12,000 people in Portland alone and held “special sessions” in 29 states.
Some laws allow or even require police departments to report 911 calls to the owners of the property. In many cases, these “nuisance ordinances” confront victims of domestic violence with the threat of eviction if they call police for help during a violent interaction—either directly (as a result of the landlord’s response) or indirectly (if the call leads to incarceration and lost income). Nuisance ordinances typically apply whether or not the resident was a victim of the nuisance activity. Desmond reports in Evicted that the Milwaukee Police Department issued a nuisance property citation to residential property owners every 33 hours in 2008 and 2009.
Caldwell, like Shelby, is now working with the Kansas City tenants union in the hopes of helping people like her own family. She says that since eviction courts have reopened in the state, their hotline has received multiple calls from women experiencing domestic violence who are unwilling to call the police for fear of eviction.
Geographer and prison abolitionist Ruth Wilson Gilmore defines racism as “the state-sanctioned and/or extralegal production and exploitation of group-differentiated vulnerability to premature death.” The housing market is an especially visceral example of the phenomenon Gilmore describes: Black women had evictions filed at twice the rate of white renters in 17 states. Families are also especially vulnerable. Among renting households, nearly half of Black children and 44 percent of Hispanic children are either living in a house that is behind on rent or where there isn’t enough to eat, alongside 35 percent of white children who face these conditions. A team of researchers (including Desmond) found that the presence of children makes a household more likely to receive an eviction judgement in Milwaukee’s court system.
Further, the racism of policing itself results in a vicious policing-housing insecurity cycle. The housing system relegates families like Evon and her son to poor neighborhoods, which often have a higher police presence and levels of violence, linked to disinvestment, intergenerational trauma, and the structure of policing itself. As a result, residents are more likely to get arrested or otherwise involved in activity that attracts the attention of police—exactly what Shelby feared if he selected the housing that allowed convicted felons. This police presence may result in arrest or notification of their landlord, given nuisance property ordinances, and thus in evictions, or giving the landlord leverage to prevent tenants from negotiating for maintenance or upkeep.
From surveillance to substandard housing to eviction, every stage and level of the housing market converts the social precarity of the racially targeted, overpoliced working class into security and profit for landlords.
Law Enforcement and the Crisis to Come
Across the country, systems are gearing up for mass evictions: In Kansas City, they are already being conducted in person and by conference call. Columbus, Ohio, has converted a convention center into a makeshift housing court in anticipation of continuing eviction proceedings. In Wisconsin, the eviction ban expired on May 26, and in June the city of Milwaukee’s eviction rate spiked 26 percent higher than the same month the previous year. Alieza Durana of Princeton’s Eviction Lab called this “the canary in the coal mine” of the coming onslaught. Of the 1,447 evictions recorded that month, 978 were in predominantly Black neighborhoods.
This is setting the stage for perhaps the most direct—and dangerous—way that housing and policing intersect. Depending on the state, sheriffs, constables, marshals, or police departments will be charged with executing legal writs of eviction: that is, with removing people and their belongings from their homes by force of law. As tenants begin to organize in their own defense, the police are likely to be called in to defend landlords and private property. We’re already seeing early evidence of this: In Washington, D.C., management at one apartment called the police on organizers with the D.C. Tenants Union who were canvassing the building as part of a campaign to cancel rent. The police officers demanded that the organizers leave the building, enforcing building management’s internal policy on “soliciting,” in violation of the D.C. Tenants’ Bill of Rights, which expressly grants tenants the right to “distribute literature, post information, and provide building access to an outside tenant organizer” (one of the organizers even lived in the building).
“In the middle of a pandemic, we’re going to be sending the police into black communities to extract them from their houses,” says Erica Smiley, the executive director of Jobs With Justice. “That’s basically the situation that we’re setting up, where people are facing the triple crisis of being black, being targeted by the police, and potentially being out on the street.”
The housing and policing crises are set to meet this year’s compound crisis of Covid-19 and climate change: Scientists forecast wildfires, hurricanes, and floods. All of this, combined with the social unrest from their socioeconomic fallout, will further test our political systems and will disproportionately affect the same marginalized people. The fate of the world will depend on what our political systems work to protect. The future of policing is at the heart of this question, since law enforcement institutions are those that at least nominally serve to protect public safety and security.
“It’s dehumanizing not to be able to have your own place, it takes away your dignity,” Shelby said. “Having a safe place to live and to lay your head, that’s a base for everything being all right, to healing, to being able to develop a sense of self-worth.”
As Shelby explains, a person’s security is often reliant on one factor: a decent place to live. But for too many people, the police are an obstacle to the security that law enforcement is ostensibly meant to provide.


thenation--2020-08-19--Milwaukee Has a Lot to Teach Joe Biden and the Democrats

ilwaukee , isc.—Representative Gwen Moore kicked off the Democratic National Convention ’ s primetime presentation Monday night with a rousing celebration of her hometown that spoke to its history and its hopes .
“ Oh , I sure wish you all were here in the city of Milwaukee , which takes its name from the languages of the First Peoples , interpreted as ‘ good land ’ and ‘ gathering place by the waters , ’ ” she declared .
“ This is a city where blood was shed for labor rights , where a fugitive slave was freed from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to vote was first ratified.
” The reference to the city ’ s name stirred a Twitter frenzy , as fans of Milwaukee trivia wondered if she was paying homage to the scene in the movie Wayne ’ s World , where rock star Alice Cooper offers a pair of young fans a tutorial that includes references to how the name extends from a word “ which is Algonquin for ‘ the good land ’ ” and explains , “ I think one of the most interesting aspects of Milwaukee is the fact @ @ @ @ @ @ @ American city to have ever elected three Socialist mayors.
” With due regard to Twitter , Moore knows her Milwaukee history .
She has lived it , from the school integration battles of the 1960s to the present—as she so ably illustrated in an inspired 83-second speech that told of a virtual gathering “ to reclaim the soul of America.
” She also knows how to get a convention going on a high note , exclaiming , “ What better way to gather than all across America to nominate my beloved friend Joe @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the United States of America , with my VIP VP nominee sister Kamala Harris by his side ?
” Unlike the other speakers Monday night , Moore delivered her address from a podium inside the mostly empty Wisconsin Center in downtown Milwaukee where the convention was supposed to take place .
She was one of a number of Wisconsinites who will be featured at a convention that was sited in Milwaukee because the state is understood as the great battleground of the 2020 election .
“ If this is a close election , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ president , ” says Democratic Party of Wisconsin chair Ben Wikler .
Even as Biden has opened something of a lead in the polls , there is a sense that this state will be contested all the way to November 3 .
Dissenting Delegates Send a Medicare for All Message to Joe Biden Whatever This Is Is Not the Future of the Democratic Party Donald Trump is certainly of that view .
He jetted into Oshkosh , a city 88 miles north of Milwaukee , on Monday and delivered a rambling speech in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ve been good for each other.
” That ’ s a lie .
Wisconsin ’ s relationship with Donald Trump has been a lousy one .
The state was good enough for Trump in 2016 .
After voting for Democratic presidential candidates in every election from 1988 to 2012 , Wisconsin backed the Republican ticket of four years ago by the narrowest of margins—just 0.77 percent of the overall vote .
But the reality-TV star never really won over the state .
Most voters cast their ballots for someone else .
Trump pulled @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in which Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton failed to visit Wisconsin , Democratic turnout was less than needed in Milwaukee , several other cities , and rural areas .
So the Republican took the state ’ s Electoral College votes , and with them the presidency .
But Trump has never been good for Wisconsin .
Much of the suffering he ’ s caused was initially in rural areas , where Trump ’ s chaotic trade wars hit farmers hard—to a point where , at one point in 2019 , the state was losing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ We ’ re seeing more and more rural communities that are disappearing .
They ’ re losing their banks , they ’ re losing their post offices , they ’ re even losing their grocery stores , ” explained Darin Von Ruden , the president of the Wisconsin Farmers Union .
“ When there ’ s no money in the farming community it doesn ’ t stay in that local community .
And so it [ money ] disappears and the local community disappears.
” Milwaukee has suffered , as well .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ industries never really materialized and , once the coronavirus pandemic hit , unemployment in the city skyrocketed .
It now hovers around 13 percent and it ’ s higher for Milwaukee ’ s Black community .
In a city and surrounding country where racial wealth , education , and health care gaps have fostered severe inequities over too many generations—newly elected Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley says , “ The truth is we face two pandemics : COVID-19 and racism.
” That ’ s true in a lot of cities .
But a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Milwaukee is doing something about it .
Milwaukee County Board chair Marcelia Nicholson used a pre-convention address to highlight the fact that Milwaukee County and the city of Milwaukee have led the nation in identifying racism as a public health crisis .
While the president has adopted a combative approach toward the # BlackLivesMatter movement , savvy Milwaukeeans understand all too well that the city , the state , and the nation must respond to police violence and systemic racism .
How to Win in Wisconsin On the eve of the convention , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hundred peace activists , including a number of delegates for both Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden , gathered under a billboard that declared , “ 3 % of U.S. Military Spending Could End Starvation on Earth.
” They heard a message from Representative Barbara Lee , the California Democrat who has led the charge with Wisconsin Democrat Mark Pocan to cut the Pentagon budget .
State Representative for Milwaukee David Bowen made the connection between calls for defunding the Pentagon and the police .
Bowen noted that he and other activists have been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more than 80 days , in one of the longest sustained protests in the country over killings of Black people by police officers .
At the rally , he called for reinvesting federal and state dollars in social programs that actually make communities safer .
“ Unfortunately , there are people who are much more tied to the status quo than we are , ” he explained to me before the rally broke up and the area around the convention cleared out .
Instead of the crowds for which the city had prepared—and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from hosting a national convention—the streets were more or less empty .
Few people .
Few cars .
So quiet that a wild turkey wandered out from some bushes in a park near the Milwaukee Public Museum and crossed West Wells Street .
I took a picture .
Then I heard a bustle in the distance .
There were energetic voices and music .
Suddenly , downtown came alive—not for the convention but for the Black is Beautiful II bike ride , an event organized by Sam Ahmed , a local rapper known @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Hundreds of riders raced through the streets , many with yellow banners featuring clenched fists waving off the backs of their bikes .
They swept past the convention site and headed up Old World Third Street .
Some of the bikes were outfitted with sound systems , a few riders used bullhorns to amplify the message .
It was an inspired demonstration , all organized , Webster X told the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Post , to promote “ love and solidarity ” and to signal that racial justice activists were “ still @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to make an impact by any means necessary.
” Too bad delegates and the national media didn ’ t get to see it .
It made me think , like Gwen Moore , that I sure wish you all were here in the city of Milwaukee .

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M ilwaukee, W isc.—Representative Gwen Moore kicked off the Democratic National Convention’s primetime presentation Monday night with a rousing celebration of her hometown that spoke to its history and its hopes. “Oh, I sure wish you all were here in the city of Milwaukee, which takes its name from the languages of the First Peoples, interpreted as ‘good land’ and ‘gathering place by the waters,’” she declared. “This is a city where blood was shed for labor rights, where a fugitive slave was freed from prison, where women’s right to vote was first ratified.”
The reference to the city’s name stirred a Twitter frenzy, as fans of Milwaukee trivia wondered if she was paying homage to the scene in the movie Wayne’s World, where rock star Alice Cooper offers a pair of young fans a tutorial that includes references to how the name extends from a word “which is Algonquin for ‘the good land’” and explains, “I think one of the most interesting aspects of Milwaukee is the fact that it’s the only major American city to have ever elected three Socialist mayors.”
With due regard to Twitter, Moore knows her Milwaukee history. She has lived it, from the school integration battles of the 1960s to the present—as she so ably illustrated in an inspired 83-second speech that told of a virtual gathering “to reclaim the soul of America.” She also knows how to get a convention going on a high note, exclaiming, “What better way to gather than all across America to nominate my beloved friend Joe Biden to be the 46th president of the United States of America, with my VIP VP nominee sister Kamala Harris by his side?”
Unlike the other speakers Monday night, Moore delivered her address from a podium inside the mostly empty Wisconsin Center in downtown Milwaukee where the convention was supposed to take place. She was one of a number of Wisconsinites who will be featured at a convention that was sited in Milwaukee because the state is understood as the great battleground of the 2020 election. “If this is a close election, whoever wins Wisconsin will be the next president,” says Democratic Party of Wisconsin chair Ben Wikler. Even as Biden has opened something of a lead in the polls, there is a sense that this state will be contested all the way to November 3. More From John Nichols A GOP Debate Without Trump Is the Definition of Pointlessness August 11, 2023 A Win for Abortion Rights, a Win for Democracy: Ohio Voters Reject Issue 1 August 9, 2023 The Biggest Threat to Donald Trump Could Be the Constitution Itself August 4, 2023
Donald Trump is certainly of that view. He jetted into Oshkosh, a city 88 miles north of Milwaukee, on Monday and delivered a rambling speech in which he claimed, “We’ve been good for each other.”
That’s a lie. Wisconsin’s relationship with Donald Trump has been a lousy one.
The state was good enough for Trump in 2016. After voting for Democratic presidential candidates in every election from 1988 to 2012, Wisconsin backed the Republican ticket of four years ago by the narrowest of margins—just 0.77 percent of the overall vote. But the reality-TV star never really won over the state. Most voters cast their ballots for someone else. Trump pulled ahead because, after a fall campaign in which Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton failed to visit Wisconsin, Democratic turnout was less than needed in Milwaukee, several other cities, and rural areas. So the Republican took the state’s Electoral College votes, and with them the presidency. Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann Current Issue View our current issue
But Trump has never been good for Wisconsin. Much of the suffering he’s caused was initially in rural areas, where Trump’s chaotic trade wars hit farmers hard—to a point where, at one point in 2019, the state was losing three dairy farms a day. “We’re seeing more and more rural communities that are disappearing. They’re losing their banks, they’re losing their post offices, they’re even losing their grocery stores,” explained Darin Von Ruden, the president of the Wisconsin Farmers Union. “When there’s no money in the farming community it doesn’t stay in that local community. And so it [money] disappears and the local community disappears.”
Milwaukee has suffered, as well. The president’s promise to renew basic industries never really materialized and, once the coronavirus pandemic hit, unemployment in the city skyrocketed. It now hovers around 13 percent and it’s higher for Milwaukee’s Black community. In a city and surrounding country where racial wealth, education, and health care gaps have fostered severe inequities over too many generations—newly elected Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley says, “The truth is we face two pandemics: COVID-19 and racism.” That’s true in a lot of cities. But a new generation of local elected officials in Milwaukee is doing something about it. Milwaukee County Board chair Marcelia Nicholson used a pre-convention address to highlight the fact that Milwaukee County and the city of Milwaukee have led the nation in identifying racism as a public health crisis.
While the president has adopted a combative approach toward the #BlackLivesMatter movement, savvy Milwaukeeans understand all too well that the city, the state, and the nation must respond to police violence and systemic racism. What It Takes How to Win in Wisconsin John Nichols
On the eve of the convention, downtown Milwaukee was uncrowded. Perhaps a hundred peace activists, including a number of delegates for both Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden, gathered under a billboard that declared, “3% of U.S. Military Spending Could End Starvation on Earth.” They heard a message from Representative Barbara Lee, the California Democrat who has led the charge with Wisconsin Democrat Mark Pocan to cut the Pentagon budget. State Representative for Milwaukee David Bowen made the connection between calls for defunding the Pentagon and the police. Bowen noted that he and other activists have been demonstrating in Milwaukee and neighboring suburbs for more than 80 days, in one of the longest sustained protests in the country over killings of Black people by police officers. At the rally, he called for reinvesting federal and state dollars in social programs that actually make communities safer.
“Unfortunately, there are people who are much more tied to the status quo than we are,” he explained to me before the rally broke up and the area around the convention cleared out. Instead of the crowds for which the city had prepared—and the employment boost that would have come from hosting a national convention—the streets were more or less empty. Few people. Few cars. So quiet that a wild turkey wandered out from some bushes in a park near the Milwaukee Public Museum and crossed West Wells Street. I took a picture. Then I heard a bustle in the distance. There were energetic voices and music. Suddenly, downtown came alive—not for the convention but for the Black is Beautiful II bike ride, an event organized by Sam Ahmed, a local rapper known as Webster X, and other artists. Hundreds of riders raced through the streets, many with yellow banners featuring clenched fists waving off the backs of their bikes. They swept past the convention site and headed up Old World Third Street. Some of the bikes were outfitted with sound systems, a few riders used bullhorns to amplify the message. It was an inspired demonstration, all organized, Webster X told the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Post, to promote “love and solidarity” and to signal that racial justice activists were “still very much so out here and trying to make an impact by any means necessary.”
Too bad delegates and the national media didn’t get to see it. It made me think, like Gwen Moore, that I sure wish you all were here in the city of Milwaukee.


thenation--2020-08-20--Kamala Harris Does Her Best to Redeem Our Sexist, Racist Past

For many Democratic women , Wednesday night ’ s convention roster heralded a celebration tied up in a well-worn ribbon of grief .
As we hailed the historic nomination of Senator Kamala Harris , the first black woman ever chosen as Vice President , we also mourned the lost chances of other amazing women who spoke this very same night : Hillary Clinton , the 2016 presidential nominee who won by 3 million votes but lost the Electoral College to Donald Trump , and Senator Elizabeth Warren , whose own inspiring 2020 presidential campaign ran strong , until it didn @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the big prize , the White House , until her once-promising campaign ran aground on organizational troubles plus some racism and sexism tossed like marbles on the slick floor before her .
Let ’ s be clear : The VP pick is no mere consolation prize for Harris .
This is huge .
Yet many of us expected we ’ d be watching a convention this summer nominating a woman president for her second term , and when that dream died , nominating the next woman nominee — not necessarily trying to get @ @ @ @ @ @ @ another white man ’ s Number Two .
But was that just my pandemic gloom talking ?
I began to think so once I got on a Zoom event early Wednesday evening sponsored by Higher Heights for Women , a national organization advancing the political participation of black women , which endorsed Harris for president and then pushed her for VP .
It was part dance party , part testimonial , with MC Lyte as DJ .
When she played Beyonce ’ s version of “ Before I Let Go , ” rocking @ @ @ @ @ @ @ young and old , dancing on their own , I let go of my grief and anger and got ready to enjoy the history-making to come .
First we had to get through Hillary Clinton , without grief .
She gave an object lesson in realism .
With her white hair in a light flip , minimal makeup , looking comfortable on her couch , it was easy to imagine she just re-watched an episode of “ Schitt ’ s Creek , ” before she turned to the camera to tell us to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ing vote .
Elizabeth Warren Is Prepared to Prosecute Trump in 2020 , and 2021 Obama ’ s High-Minded Civics Lesson Asks Too Much of Us “ For four years , people have told me , ‘ I didn ’ t realize how dangerous he was.
’ ‘ I wish I could do it all over.
’ Or worst , ‘ I should have voted.
’ Look , this can ’ t be another woulda , coulda , shoulda election , ” Clinton said .
“ Most of all , no matter what @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : Joe and Kamala can win by 3 million votes and still lose–take it from me.
” Elizabeth Warren appeared from a pre-kindergarten classroom to highlight her proposal , mostly supported now by Biden , to vastly expand funding for pre-K and other public child care programs .
She reprised one of her great campaign trail stories about how she wouldn ’ t be here–a law professor , a senator , a presidential candidate–without her Aunt Bee .
When she told Aunt Bee she didn ’ t think she could keep working with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ said the words that changed my life .
‘ I can ’ t get there tomorrow but I ’ ll come on Thursday.
’ She came with seven suitcases and a Pekingese named Buddy.
” Warren made the case for an early child education infrastructure that doesn ’ t force us all to rely on an Aunt Bee–whether we have one or not .
For a couple of days , the Democratic National Convention schedule made it look like Harris was speaking after Barack Obama ( tradition would of course say after @ @ @ @ @ @ @ if she didn ’ t want to follow the Democrats ’ best orator of my lifetime ) .
In the end , the former president came out first and laid the groundwork for Harris ’ s historic speech , and Biden ’ s essential run .
Speaking of Trump , he lamented : Obama talked up Biden as “ a brother , ” and said of Harris : “ In my friend Kamala Harris , he ’ s chosen an ideal partner who ’ s more than prepared for the job ; someone @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to overcome barriers and who ’ s made a career fighting to help others live out their own American dream.
” I can ’ t help adding the heart of his speech , which was the appeal to unity Obama always got right : Whatever our backgrounds , we ’ re all the children of Americans who fought the good fight .
Great grandparents working in firetraps and sweatshops without rights or representation .
Farmers losing their dreams to dust .
Irish and Italians and Asians and Latinos told to go back where @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Muslims and Sikhs , made to feel suspect for the way they worshipped .
Black Americans chained and whipped and hanged .
Spit on for trying to sit at lunch counters .
Beaten for trying to vote .
If anyone had a right to believe that this democracy did not work , and could not work , it was those Americans .
Our ancestors .
They were on the receiving end of a democracy that had fallen short all their lives .
They knew how far the daily reality of America strayed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ instead of giving up , they joined together and said somehow , some way , we are going to make this work .
I ’ ll always wish this reached my Irish and Italian Republican relatives , and know deep down that it probably hasn ’ t .
If it was tough for Harris to follow Obama , it didn ’ t feel that way .
She was incandescent , opening by hailing the black women suffragists and other leaders , many shunned or sidelined by white feminists , who “ paved the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Obama and Hillary Clinton.
” Harris did her own roll call : “ Mary Church Terrell and Mary McCleod Bethune .
Fannie Lou Hamer and Diane Nash .
Constance Baker Motley and Shirley Chisholm.
” Then she added a less-well-known woman to that list : her mother , Shyamala Gopalan Harris , the single mother , civil rights activist and breast cancer researcher who raised Harris and her sister Maya in multiple cities across their childhoods , always teaching them leadership and compassion .
Harris pulled together the twin scourges of the coronavirus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : “ Black , Latino and Indigenous people are suffering and dying disproportionately .
This is not a coincidence .
It is the effect of structural racism.
” This was not a wonky speech ; quite the opposite .
If you came to hear about her Medicare for All plan ( yes , complicated ) or any of the issues that occupied time on the debate stage this cycle , you were disappointed .
If you came for soaring references to the late John Lewis and Fannie Lou Hamer–and Shyamala Gopalan Harris , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 17 years ago–you were happy .
“ Joe and I believe that we can build that Beloved Community , one that is strong and decent , just and kind , “ she reassured us .
“ One in which we all can see ourselves.
” But she was tough as well .
“ I ’ ve fought for children , and survivors of sexual assault .
I ’ ve fought against transnational gangs .
I took on the biggest banks and helped take down one of the biggest for-profit colleges .
I know @ @ @ @ @ @ @ She just left it hanging out there , she didn ’ t mention the predator ’ s name , all the more an indictment .
Trump seemed to get the point , Tweeting impotently : My Higher Heights Zoom dance party put me in the mood to celebrate all of it .
But of course , the racists are coming for Harris .
At the Higher Heights event , actor and activist Yvette Nicole Brown told everyone to be prepared .
“ I don ’ t want her to be broken inside because @ @ @ @ @ @ @ come Inauguration Day , Brown told our group .
“ It ’ s gon na be ugly .
Let ’ s form a human shield of female blackness–and brothers , you are welcome here too.
” I ’ d like to welcome my white sisters–and brothers–too , because I agree it ’ s gon na get ugly .
But Wednesday felt like the beginning of something new and amazing and for now , hard to touch with ugly .

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For many Democratic women, Wednesday night’s convention roster heralded a celebration tied up in a well-worn ribbon of grief. As we hailed the historic nomination of Senator Kamala Harris, the first black woman ever chosen as a vice presidential candidate, we also mourned the lost chances of other amazing women who spoke this very same night: Hillary Clinton, the 2016 presidential nominee who won by 3 million votes but lost the Electoral College to Donald Trump, and Senator Elizabeth Warren, whose own inspiring 2020 presidential campaign ran strong, until it didn’t.1
Harris herself had sought the big prize, the White House, until her once-promising campaign ran aground on organizational troubles, plus some racism and sexism tossed like marbles on the slick floor before her. Let’s be clear: The VP pick is no mere consolation prize for Harris. This is huge. Yet many of us expected we’d be watching a convention this summer nominating a woman president for her second term, and when that dream died, nominating the next woman nominee—not necessarily trying to get one of us on the ballot as another white man’s Number Two.2
But was that just my pandemic gloom talking? I began to think so, once I got on a Zoom event early Wednesday evening sponsored by Higher Heights, a national organization advancing the political participation of black women, which endorsed Harris for president and then pushed her for VP. It was part dance party, part testimonial, with MC Lyte as DJ. When she played Beyonce’s version of “Before I Let Go,” rocking dozens of squares of black women, young and old, dancing on their own, I let go of my grief and anger and got ready to enjoy the history-making to come.3
First we had to get through Hillary Clinton, without grief. She gave an object lesson in realism. With her white-blonde hair in a light flip, minimal makeup, looking comfortable on her couch, it was easy to imagine she had just rewatched an episode of Schitt’s Creek before she turned to the camera to tell us to get out and f*(%&ing vote.4
“For four years, people have told me, ‘I didn’t realize how dangerous he was.’ ‘I wish I could do it all over.’ Or worst, ‘I should have voted.’ Look, this can’t be another woulda, coulda, shoulda election,” Clinton said. “Most of all, no matter what, vote. Don’t forget: Joe and Kamala can win by 3 million votes and still lose—take it from me.”5
(An aside: Can you imagine what it’s like to be Hillary Clinton listening to people say idiotic things like they “wish” they had voted? I guess that means for her? I’d probably be in jail if I had to listen to that more than once. Or at least over-consuming Chardonnay.)6
Elizabeth Warren appeared from a pre-kindergarten classroom to highlight her proposal, mostly supported now by Biden, to vastly expand funding for pre-K and other public child care programs. She reprised one of her great campaign trail stories about how she wouldn’t be here—a law professor, a senator, a presidential candidate—without her Aunt Bea. When she told Aunt Bea she didn’t think she could keep working with two young children, her beloved aunt “said the words that changed my life. ‘I can’t get there tomorrow, but I’ll come on Thursday.’ She came with seven suitcases and a Pekingese named Buddy.”7 Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann
Warren made the case for an early child education infrastructure that doesn’t force us all to rely on an Aunt Bea—whether we have one or not.8
For a couple of days, the Democratic National Convention schedule made it look like Harris was speaking before Barack Obama (tradition would, of course, dictate after, but you’d kinda understand if she didn’t want to follow the Democrats’ best orator of my lifetime). In the end, the former president came out first and laid the groundwork for Harris’s historic speech, and Biden’s essential run. Speaking of Trump, he lamented:9
For close to four years now, he’s shown no interest in putting in the work; no interest in finding common ground; no interest in using the awesome power of his office to help anyone but himself and his friends; no interest in treating the presidency as anything but one more reality show that he can use to get the attention he craves. Donald Trump hasn’t grown into the job because he can’t.10
Obama talked up Biden as “a brother,” and said of Harris, “In my friend Kamala Harris, he’s chosen an ideal partner who’s more than prepared for the job; someone who knows what it’s like to overcome barriers and who’s made a career fighting to help others live out their own American dream.”11
I can’t help adding the heart of his speech, which was the appeal to unity Obama always got right:12
Whatever our backgrounds, we’re all the children of Americans who fought the good fight. Great grandparents working in firetraps and sweatshops without rights or representation. Farmers losing their dreams to dust. Irish and Italians and Asians and Latinos told to go back where they came from. Jews and Catholics, Muslims and Sikhs, made to feel suspect for the way they worshipped. Black Americans chained and whipped and hanged. Spit on for trying to sit at lunch counters. Beaten for trying to vote.13 If anyone had a right to believe that this democracy did not work, and could not work, it was those Americans. Our ancestors. They were on the receiving end of a democracy that had fallen short all their lives. They knew how far the daily reality of America strayed from the myth. And yet, instead of giving up, they joined together and said somehow, some way, we are going to make this work.14
I’ll always wish this reached my Irish and Italian Republican relatives, and know deep down that it probably didn’t.15
If it was tough for Harris to follow Obama, it didn’t feel that way. She was incandescent, opening by hailing the black women suffragists and other leaders, many shunned or sidelined by white feminists, who “paved the way for the trailblazing leadership of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.” Harris did her own roll call: “Mary Church Terrell and Mary McCleod Bethune. Fannie Lou Hamer and Diane Nash. Constance Baker Motley and Shirley Chisholm.”16
Then she added a less-well-known woman to that list: her mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, the single mother, civil rights activist and breast cancer researcher who raised Harris and her sister, Maya, in multiple cities across their childhoods, always teaching them leadership and compassion.17
Harris pulled together the twin scourges of the coronavirus and police violence, noting of both: “Black, Latino and Indigenous people are suffering and dying disproportionately. This is not a coincidence. It is the effect of structural racism.”18
This was not a wonky speech, quite the opposite. If you came to hear about her Medicare for All plan (yes, complicated) or any of the issues that occupied time on the debate stage this cycle, you were disappointed. If you came for soaring references to the late John Lewis and Fannie Lou Hamer—and Shyamala Gopalan Harris, whom it was my pleasure to interview 17 years ago—you were happy. “Joe and I believe that we can build that beloved community, one that is strong and decent, just and kind, “she reassured us. “One in which we all can see ourselves.”19
But she was tough as well.20
“I’ve fought for children, and survivors of sexual assault. I’ve fought against transnational gangs. I took on the biggest banks and helped take down one of the biggest for-profit colleges. I know a predator when I see one.”21
She just left it hanging out there. That she didn’t mention the predator’s name was all the more an indictment.22
Trump seemed to get the point, Tweeting impotently:23
BUT DIDN’T SHE CALL HIM A RACIST??? DIDN’T SHE SAY HE WAS INCOMPETENT???24 —Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 20, 202025
My Higher Heights Zoom dance party put me in the mood to celebrate all of it. But, of course, the racists are coming for Harris. At the Higher Heights event, actor and activist Yvette Nicole Brown told everyone to be prepared. “I don’t want her to be broken inside because of what she had to endure” come Inauguration Day, Brown told our group. “It’s gonna be ugly. Let’s form a human shield of female blackness—and brothers, you are welcome here too.”26
I’d like to welcome my white sisters—and brothers—too, because I agree it’s gonna get ugly. But Wednesday felt like the beginning of something new and amazing and for now, hard to touch with ugly.27