By Eddy “Precise” Lamarre

This election has been historic for all the wrong reasons.

It’s 2024, and Joe Biden is president of the United States, while Vice President Kamala Harris is running to become president. Her opponent, the 45th president and a convicted felon, is believed to have incited supporters to storm the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

All of that, for lack of a better word, sounds CRAZY! However, what’s crazier is that it’s all true and has created unprecedented political tension in this country. It permeates our computer and cellphone screens. People are choosing sides, many blindly. While Black men have been targeted as a demographic that could prevent Harris’s election, White women actually wield that electoral power. Recent election data shows this clearly: White women have consistently represented 37% of the electorate in presidential elections. In 2020, 53% of White women voted for Trump over Biden, similar to 2016 when 52% supported Trump over Hillary Clinton.

Trump has been hitting the campaign trail, energizing his base with controversial remarks and behavior. The recent rally at Madison Square Garden drew comparisons to Nazi rallies held on Feb. 20, 1939. Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s comment calling Puerto Rico an “island of garbage” was met with widespread criticism.

These events have overshadowed the truly historic moment before us. Harris is an election away from becoming the first woman to hold the nation’s highest office. If successful, she would accomplish what Hillary Clinton could not. Harris follows in the footsteps of Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to Congress and the first Black person and woman to run for president. In 1972, Chisholm’s campaign was considered bold and, to many, improbable. However, its impact reaches 52 years into our present.

Harris, who already made history as the first woman vice president of South Asian and Caribbean heritage, stands on the precipice of changing history. This HBCU graduate, former California attorney general and proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., could become the first Black woman to hold the highest office in the land, representing progress in a country built on the foundation of racism and slavery.

When you go to the polls this week to make your selection, consider what side of history you want to be on and which historic moment matters most to you