Joy in a Climate of Injustice

What is joy in a climate of injustice?  How should we think about Kamala Harris’s politics of joy?

First, it is a radical contrast from the anger, hate and resentment that has dominated the Republican Party from the rise of the Tea Party movement to Trump’s campaign.  Instead of the domination of white supremacy, Harris’s politics of joy is coupled with the freedom of every person

Several pro-Trump social media outlets have propositioned that the Harris campaign borrowed the politics of joy from the Nazi. One such group, the Christian group, “Now the End Begins” posted the following:

In 1933, Nazi Germany rolled out something called Kraft Durch Freude, or in English, Strength Through Joy, the idea being that your source of joy was to be given to you from your Fascist government. In 2024, Comrade Kamala wants to do the very same thing.

Most of the time, apocalyptic groups are not worth writing about, but when such groups have followers who are voters, then their twisted associations and fabrications need a response.  As Harris says time and time again, joy is not about domination, but freedom, such as freedom to control your body, or freedom to love who you love, or freedom from gun violence.

People are also free to tell lies.  They may even enjoy doing so.  “Joy,” it seems, can be used for every different purpose, or to put it another way, it can belong to very different contexts or social worlds.  What does it mean in the context of a climate of injustice?

In a recent article in the NY Times entitled: “Where Joy Meets Anger: Harris and Trump Battle for Undecided Voters” (9/21), one person the writers interviewed said,” But what are we supposed to do, have joy for inflation? For rising rent? What am I supposed to be joyful about?”  If I understand Harris’s view of joy, it is not about something, but rather about being something.  Joy belongs to our humanity and its power to thrive even in an unjust world. 

That’s the answer I find in Tracey Michael Lewis Giggetts’ book, Black Joy: Stories of Resistance, Resilience, and Restoration (2022).  She writes:

White supremacy and our struggle against it isn't the only thing that binds us together as Black people. In fact, it isn't even the most interesting part of who we are. That said, the experiences of the descendants of African people (the enslaved particularly) are convoluted at best and therefore our joy is ever intertwined with our struggle; ever integrated with the trauma wielded against us. You are surely going to have to use a different lens to witness this particular brand of joy--maybe even in these essays--but I assure you that if you're willing to see it, it's willing to be seen. Black joy is both pervasive and petty that way. No game of peekaboo here, though. Just an unwillingness to contort itself in order to become some beacon of light for the world. No, Black joy, no matter how complicated, knows its survival lies in the ability for every vessel it fills to remain free even on the inside (xxiii).

 Years ago, a Black women told me that we do not have a “common humanity,” but rather a “shared humanity. This rings true once we realize that the development of our humanity occurs in some social world.  I see Kamala Harris willing to share the human joy of Black people living in our racist nation, which is nothing less than a gift that we most surely need.