No Easy Binaries

Nishita Jha

 

(Fantastical Composition [Vision with Masks]) by Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, 1920: Wikimedia Commons .

One of Polish culture’s most fascinating figures, Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz was a philosopher, painter, novelist, theorist, photographer and a dramatist. All of his works resist familiar figures and easy binaries, particularly Fantastical Composition [Vision with Masks] which seeks to invoke in the viewer a “metaphysical shudder”: the painting resembles nothing we have seen before, and still feels like a horror we know

This week, as Joe Biden stepped aside and endorsed US Vice President Kamala Harris as nominee for the Democratic party, the US electoral race fell  into the kind of easy binary that Hollywood loves: cop vs convict. Harris is a former San Francisco district attorney, who earned herself a tough reputation as California’s attorney general. Former US president Trump, meanwhile, has just gone through a season of legal troubles. There is no doubt about the fact that Kamala, daughter of immigrants and the first Black and South Asian woman to be Vice President, is a welcome breath of fresh air in what was formerly a race between two elderly white men, both of whom have beenaccused of assaulting women. 

Unsurprisingly, the binary has spawned a universe of Kamala fans: Gen Z, who have never voted before, plan to show up at polling booths; the former prosecutor has been endorsed by celebrities like George Clooney, Beyoncé and Charli XCX, who; described her as a brat ; others on the internet have been called herand Momala; her supporters are calling themselves coconut-pilled and Tiktok is a teenage dream of Kamala fancams (52.5 million posts and counting).

But while Democratic party supporters are understandably relieved that Biden is out of the race, it is useful to remember that Harris has a complex record on many of the issues Americans care about. It remains to be seen whether Harris will diverge dramatically from Biden on foreign policy; she has called for police reform following the horrific murder of Sonya Massey but has also previously spoken against the use of police body cams; the Republican party is already coming down hard on what they claim was her role in the border crisis and on immigration policy.

A quick glance at how the rest of the world sees Harris shows that binaries dominate the discourse: Harris is either a woman undeserving of professional success or a WOC heroine: Russia’s overwhelmingly white, male propagandists are taking Harris’ nomination badly. Chinese state media questioned Harris’s professional credentials, while Chinese social media has gone after her personal life. In India, a temple in the village where Harris’s maternal grandparents are from, has offered special prayers for her success. Will the narratives ever let Harris be seen as who she is i.e. a strategic, canny politician, over what she represents — her gender and the color of her skin? Only time will tell.

From AOC to Kamala Harris, sexualised disinformation remains one of the greatest threats for female politicians, but this model was first tried and tested outside the Western world. Read our story on how disinformation affected Ukrainian MP Svitlana Zalishchuk here.

What is the trouble with “both sides” and easy binaries anyway?: Tim Snyder tells it like it is: “Factual investigation would involve identifying other perspectives which the cult of Both Sides disregards.  It would necessitate separating the two aspects Both Sides from each other and confronting their words with the facts of the world.  To believers in the cult of Both Sides, it is a relief clothed in righteousness never to have to perform such labor.” Read his newsletter here.

Why did Kamala Harris, the daughter of two academics, decide to become a prosecutor?  Dan Morain, author of Harris’ unauthorized biography, Kamala’s Way reveals what he knows about the “guarded” Vice President and how she reveals herself slowly and surely: “Her mom moved her and Maya up to Montreal and took a job at McGill University. So Kamala is there as a high-school kid, and she’s doing what high-school kids do. She’s having fun; she’s in a dance troupe. One of her friends, a classmate named Wanda Kagan, confides that she’s been abused by her stepfather. And so the Harris clan brings Wanda into their home. Harris’s mom insists that she get counseling — they really bring her into the family.” 

Our friends at Daily Maverick report that South Africa has signed into law a broad climate change act that will set caps for large emitters and require every town and city to publish an adaptation plan. Here is why that matters.

When artists foresee the future isn’t a meme yet but it should be because just last week, I interviewed Jay Rechsteiner, a painter who made a work titled The Assassination of Donald Trump in 2016 (seven years before the attempt on Trump’s life). This week, political satirist Armando Iannucci’s sitcom from 2012, Veep, has gone viral for essentially predicting the rise of Harris. 

Over a hundred and fifty people have been killed and thousands injured in the wave of protests in Bangladesh triggered by a wave of reforms in the country’s job quota system. The situation was made worse by a week-long communication shutdown. Watch what is happening in the country here and here.

Keeping an eye on one’s opponent has taken on a new meaning at the Olympics where support staff for the Canadian women’s football team have been accused of spying on and recording the New Zealand football teams’ training session via drones.