Detroit seems to bring out the worst in people.
Dave Chappelle was booed off the stage in Detroit. Chris Cornell ended his life in Detroit. And in Detroit on Monday, Kamala Harris chose the city as the place where she would puncture her credibility.
“Kamala Harris sounds like two different people at her rallies,” the New York Post tweeted. They attached a 66-second video. It begins with Harris in Pittsburgh, the second of her two trips that day.
Sounding like a normal person, she said, “Everywhere I go I tell people: ‘You might not be a union member, but you better thank unions for that five-day work week.’”
Detroit was her first stop, Monday. It’s been said that Detroit is a small southern town. Harris seemed to act on that maxim by channeling the affect of a black Baptist pastor.
“You betta thank a union member for sick leave,” Harris said. “You betta thank a union member for paid leave. You betta thank a union member for vacation time.”
There are many black Baptist pastors in Detroit, and more in the South. Harris came to Michigan and ignored Mom’s advice—just be yourself—and decided to play-act as one. In front of a different audience, she played a different role. They must not have many Baptists in the Steel City.
This is a woman of 60, who claims she wants to lead the Free World. Yet she has no constancy of character, from moment to moment, from room to room.
When Donald Trump sat down with black journalists at NABJ, he treated them like journalists who happened to be black. He didn’t pander or jive talk. He was an adult, talking to a room of adults.
We are told that “code switching” has deep roots in black American history. That safety and survival depended, once upon a time, on talking one way in front of one group and another way in front of another group. You couldn’t possibly understand it. Holden Caulfield understood it perfectly. It’s phony.
But here’s what we do get. Code switching is not a leadership trait. It’s reading the room and deciding what face to wear, what others will like and tolerate.
Should she be a black Baptist pastor, or a wine mom, or a tough prosecutor? Depends on the day. Depends on the crowd.
Absorbing the traits of what surrounds you is a great quality of tilapia, not of the leader of the Free World.
If Harris would take on a fake accent to feel more comfortable in Detroit, would she make a bad deal to feel more comfortable in a room with Xi Jinping?
You betta thank Kamala Harris. She came to Detroit and showed her true self. Now the eyes of America have seen it. Now the media can’t spin it.
James David Dickson is host of the Enjoyer Podcast. Join him in conversation on X @downi75.
