I'm surprised more people don't say that about Kamala Harris.

Watching Kamala Harris run for president against Donald Trump felt like watching the toughest game in the world Frogger: His stubborn commitment to irrationality and ugliness — and the loyalty it inspired in his supporters — was the incessant traffic of cars and river logs that the Harris campaign had to dodge to avoid. We knew it would take strategy, organization and financial support to get to the other side unscathed. Harris had all of those things, despite entering the race at the eleventh hour as if she were (literally) starting the game in her last life. Still, in the early hours of Wednesday morning, news broke that Harris had become a froggy roadkill. And the defeat was so overwhelming that it felt like the game was over for the long-held dream of so many. The sad truth is: It seems pretty clear that we just missed our only chance to ever have a black woman as president.

Forget competent and qualified (our electorate surely); No woman has ever been more prepared to win the big prize than the sitting vice president. It's not just that she's comparatively more sensible than her opponent, not to mention that she's less obnoxious and willing to charm voters by appearing on podcasts like… Call her dad. It's not just that she lacked the political baggage of the 1990s that plagued Hillary Clinton's campaign. It's not just that she was running against a crazy demagogue who was already running this nation during a uniquely chaotic time in American history that ended with a devastating pandemic – which he completely mishandled and which became one of the world's leading sources of Dangerous health risks became misinformation. I could go on, but it wouldn't matter. It not Object. Given the choice between chaos, greed and anger, or relative common sense—as exercised by a competent, qualified black woman—voters overwhelmingly chose the former. It wasn't the fascism-loving type who encouraged an insurrection they couldn't trust. It was the black woman.

One of Harris' biggest weapons in this race was her membership in Alpha Kappa Alpha, the sorority she swore as a student at historically black Howard University, a particularly tough black community that moves mountains, breaks barriers and looks good doing it. It is the wisdom of the wise blacks that the devil works hard, but AKAs work harder. Formed by one of the most influential of the “Divine Nine” black sororities and fraternities led by the National Pan-Hellenic Council, Harris' experience and political savvy are a key reason many black voters were confident in Harris could be the right person to pull this off.

The ladies of Alpha Kappa Alpha have a different ethos than the rest of the Divine Nine. More than any other historically Black sorority, the AKAs focus on strengthening and preserving the “social stature” of Black people (as stated in their five core principles). There's a lot hidden under the tip of that iceberg: Most historically black Greek organizations have statements of purpose that include a focus on “economic growth.” But AKA's reference to “social stature” is slightly different. It's not just about leadership, status, wealth or power. It's also about appearance, politeness and seriousness. And historically, for black people, that means approximating oneself or one's presence to whiteness.

Etiquette and presentability are achievements for anyone, but they are concepts created and defined by white people in this country. For many aspiring black Americans, white approval is still necessary to succeed. Therefore, it is not surprising that AKAs have long been known for having predominantly light-skinned women in their ranks who wear silk hairstyles over natural curls. The double-edged sword of achieving powerful social status as a marginalized person in American society is the assimilation necessary to achieve it. Rest assured, no one fits that bill better than Kamala Harris.

To put it bluntly: If Harris was considered too black to be our first black president, then, oh well! I guess there's that dream. She looked the same, in pantsuits and pearls (a signature sorority accessory). She played the role: She was known as C even in college³because you are calm, cool and collected. She refused to make her identity as a Black, South Asian American the focus of the campaign, having seen what the pursuit of identity had done for Clinton just eight years earlier. And while Harris maintained an extremely controlled image, he also had outstanding credentials, having served as vice president, U.S. senator and attorney general of California.

And if securing Black votes and Black capital was the only thing Harris needed for this campaign, she would have done it in a business day. Within 24 hours of her endorsement as the Democratic presidential nominee, Black women raised an unprecedented amount of campaign funds, broke Zoom capacity records and began making major efforts to vote. Much of this was led by sorority and fraternity members of the Divine Nine, and to call the Divine Nine “organized” is an understatement. Organizing isn't just what they do best, it's also what they do.

But it wasn't enough to take inspiration from the white colleges and use our own secret societies to convince the rest of the population in just 107 short days. Harris—backed not only by powerful black institutions with money and status and the will to get shit done, but also by celebrities, party leaders, Democrats, deposed Republicans, and an ungodly amount of campaign money—failed.

There have already been many internal arguments about what Harris lost in the election, about demographics and trust in the system, about running an uninspired platform versus a fascist one, about the economy and discontent with inflation. But the deepest truth must not be lost: Unfortunately, in the face of fear, frustration, or just plain dissatisfaction, this country will always return to its original principles of racism and misogyny. It has never been more unclear what a unified Democratic opposition to Trumpism should look like, but there is a very clear reality staring us right in the face. If Harris, the woman we have come closest to bridging black and white voters, couldn't win in 2024, perhaps there wouldn't be a black woman may.

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