“Kamala Harris is black and a woman. Let that pipe dream die today.”
On July 22nd, President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential bid and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the new democratic nominee.
Right after this shocking event, social media star Fannita Leggett posted a recently deleted TikTok video publicly criticizing Harris. While casually lying on the sofa, Fannita exclaims, “Sorry to be the bearer of bad news guys, but Kamala Harris is black and a woman. Let that pipe dream die today.” This strong statement was followed by a light-hearted, joking laugh. Then, Fannita goes on to describe Harris’ campaign as “cute, and quirky…in theory”, but “at the end of the day…all dreams don’t come true.” She even compares the unseriousness of Kamala Harris to Santa Claus, finally telling us to “be honest with ourselves” and asking what we can do to move forward.
In short, Fannita suggests in her video that it would be impossible for Harris to win this election because of her race and gender, pointing out that her being considered as the nominee is a joke in itself.
Image Credit: The United States Senate - Office of Senator Kamala Harris from Wikimedia Commons
Recently, Kamala Harris has been receiving quite a bit of criticism, whether it’s from J.D. Vance’s resurfaced video calling her “a cat lady…and childless” or other Republicans naming her as a DEI hire (Diversity Equity and Inclusion). However, it is surprising to see Fannita, who is also a black woman bash, and even laugh at Harris. As a result, this viral video has caused considerable backlash towards Fannita herself.
Why is Kamala Harris the Center of Attention?
But first, who is Kamala Harris? And why has she been the center of attention for the past two weeks?
Kamala Harris is the current Vice President of the U.S., and she is also the first ever Southeast Asian, black, and female Vice President in history. Having grown up in California, she went to Howard University, then law school, eventually becoming district attorney of San Francisco, and then slowly climbed up the ranks to senator and finally, Biden’s 2020 VP pick.
After Biden’s performance at the most recent presidential debate, and for undisclosed reasons, he decided to withdraw from the presidential election. While dropping out, Biden also endorsed and supported Kamala Harris to run in place of him. In the last two weeks, Harris has received endorsements from all democratic governors, the majority of democratic senators including Elizabeth Warren, Mark Kelly, and Sherrod Brown, as well as the Obamas, the Clintons, and even Cardi B.
So, Harris has been practically shoved into the spotlight. She’s been given great responsibility, as well as open space for criticism. And one of them has to do with her gender and race.
Specifically, many are calling her a “DEI hire”, indicating that she wouldn’t have received all this power and support if she wasn’t a black woman and that she is inherently incapable of leading or making decisions beneficial for the country. In contrast, proponents of Harris argue that she has earned her position every step of her career, overcoming much difficulty with resilience and strength.
Backlash on the Video
Taking a step back to the video, many TikTokers, especially from the black community, are reprimanding Fannita for her lack of hope and for inappropriately spreading a narrative that is limiting black women. Many users also comment that Fannita’s video is all about clout, instead of her genuine thoughts
Image Credit: Jernej Furman from Wikimedia Commons
In one video on TikTok by “setaminata” that garnered 42.1K views, the Tiktoker compares Fannita’s pessimistic outlook to someone’s friend demoralizing them when their crush just asked them out. Then, she asks the viewer, “How would you feel in that situation?”...“Because whatever you feel in that situation is exactly the energy that Fannita’s video gives off… Pessimism is not reality, Okay?” Later, she goes on to emphasize the importance of hope that has kept the long-prosecuted African American community going.
Similarly, black TikToker “jstnfrtt” also posted a video titled “Do better!” with 5.3M views sharing his disappointment. He tells the viewer, “It breaks my heart that the main ones that don’t believe in us is us”, pointing out that Fannita is just “regurgitating the same white male supremacist bllsht.” He highlights how the narrative Fannita has been putting out is the very narrative that stops women from doing “what they know in their souls they can do”. Finally, he directly addresses Fannita, exclaiming that Kamala Harris “is fighting for you…and you make a joke like that, it’s a slap in the face to her sacrifices and sacrifices of many black women.” This especially powerful video amassed many agreeing comments too.
It was obvious that this backlash made an impact. In the span of 48 hours, Fannita had lost around 100K followers, dropping from 2.1M to 2M. Many individuals on X and other social media have been encouraged to unfollow Fannita. So they did, making sure she wouldn’t be getting the same attention she had been getting.
Fannita’s TikTok Response
Interestingly enough, one day after Fannita deleted her post, she published another TikTok titled “See yall at the polls”. Her first sentence was “I’m voting for Kamala Harris a hundred percent.” She rephrased her entire “Let that pipe dream die” speech to a “Let’s not be ignorant with her challenges” speech. Almost as an effort to save her image, she finally encourages all black voters to go out to the polls and vote.
Image Credit: The United States Senate - Office of Senator Kamala Harris from Wikimedia Commons
Her “apology” video also received a lot of attention, gaining 11,500 comments and 3.5M views. As expected, most of her commenters saw straight through her, commenting messages like “the switch up was REAL quick”, “the pivot is insane”, and “I see the stitch”.
Since then, Fannita has not posted any other videos. The anger and disappointment have been dying down, but that does not take away how much her video made an impact.
At the end of the day, with Harris officially securing the Democratic nomination, her fight will be a hard but worthwhile one. With the hope and support of so many, as evidenced by the backlash to Fannita’s video, it seems like anything is possible in the next few months.
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