From the hashtag #SayHerName to the old African American adage “take that name out your mouth” the civil rights movement has been deeply connected with honoring its unsung heroes by naming them.
It was fitting, thus, that California Sen. Kamala Harris, in her acceptance speech for the vice presidential nomination at the Democratic National Convention, rattled of a litany of forgotten names including those of black female pioneers in the fight for equality and voting rights.
“There’s another woman whose name isn’t known, whose story isn’t shared,” she said before framing her own biography through the tribute to her late mother, Shyamala Gopalan, who fled India at age 19 to have an anchor baby while attending Berkeley.
“I got a stroller’s-eye view of people getting into what the great John Lewis called ‘good trouble,’ said Harris, of witnessing protests much like the recent riots now taking place in Oakland during the late 1960s.
Her downplaying of the violent 1968 riots aside, Harris didn’t just speak nostalgically of her own traumatic upbringing—she spoke, too, of another troubled and mentally scarred product of a single-parent household: Hunter Biden.
The black-sheep son of presidential nominee Joe Biden has been featured in photographs, but was rarely—if ever—brought up by name during speeches including that of aspiring First Lady Jill Biden on Tuesday.
However, his running mate said Hunter’s name on Wednesday during an anecdote about her special relationship with Biden’s other son, the late Beau Biden, who was attorney general of Delaware while she was serving the role in California.
Tapping into some of the oft-repeated staples of Biden lore, Beau regaled Harris with stories about how he and Hunter got to have breakfast with their father before he would catch the Amtrak to Washington, DC, during his days in the Senate.
The throwaway line did not go unnoticed on Twitter.
Where’s Hunter? I was looking forward to him nominating his dad at the convention.
— Big Bopper (@BigBopp21076849) August 20, 2020
everyone’s asking: where’s hunter
— Schlieffen Fam (@hucklebuckets) August 20, 2020
Where’s Tara? Where’s Hunter?
— Randal Paster (@RandalPaster) August 20, 2020
Meanwhile, despite the many opportunities to do so, the Democrats still managed to dodge any direct mention of Biden rape accuser Tara Reade, even as a video montage directly addressed questions of female abuse and assault.
Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Elizabeth Warren and Barack Obama all neglected to confront head on the elephant in the (virtual) room.
In fact, some seemed to suggest that Biden was a strong advocate and protector of abused women, ignoring the many binders of evidence to the contrary secured within the University of Delaware library that holds his archival papers.
In a departure from her previous attacks on Biden—calling him a segregation apologist and saying she believed his rape accusers—Harris kept her attacks largely focused on Trump.
But she did appear to make a down-payment on her promise during the speech to speak the truth while claiming (again despite evidence to the contrary) that she was tough on abusers during her time as a prosecutor.
“I know a predator when I see one,” she warned ominously.
