Isn’t it unbelievable that the race for president between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump is still so close? I am not the only one in our family who is avoiding to watch the news about the election, or choosing very closely what I am watching, to try not to despair but have some hope left. How can the race be so close even if brave republicans endorse Kamala Harris, famous Americans like Magic Johnson supporting Harris, Trump is being more trumpy than ever and we are in dire need of a sharp, experienced and humane US president right now?

Recently we have read reports about how Harris isn’t getting the same support from black voters as Joe Biden did. I find that both interesting and confusing. When analyzing this phenomenon my initial thought was that it is a gender issue. I recall how men and women 7 years ago seemed to think Hillary Clinton’s gender somehow would make her a weak leader.

I have not really wanted to, or dared to, express my analysis of this phenomenon (concerning younger black men in the US as a white 60+ European women) but now a black, former president is suggesting it is a question about gender. Former President Barack Obama (also born in 1961 ), who was making two stops in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania last Thursday, tried to convince black men in the local Harris campaign office not to let gender guide their vote. He said:

“We have not yet seen the same kinds of energy and turnout in all quarters of our neighborhoods and communities as we saw when I was running…You’re coming up with all kinds of reasons and excuses. I’ve got a problem with that…Part of it makes me think that, well, you just aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president, and you’re coming up with other alternatives and other reasons for that…women in our lives have been getting our backs this entire time, particularly when it comes to protesting a ‘system isn’t working for us.’ And now you’re thinking about sitting out or supporting somebody who has a history of denigrating you, because you think that’s a sign of strength, because you think that’s what being a man is? Putting women down? That’s not acceptable.”

A barber in North Carolina has also noticed this trend: “Most of my female family and friends — they’re voting for Harris…I think … a lot of men aren’t ready to vote for a woman.”

So what will it take for voters in the American election to vote for candidates who won’t work against their own interests?

Despite what Trump says on the campaign trail, we do know his agenda will hurt rather than help struggling middle and working class Americans.  How could working and middle class voters benefit to vote for Trump? A person with a toxic hypermasculine anti-science agenda who is spreading lies and who as president, among others things, signed into law a tax bill which benefits corporations and super-rich individuals, who already tried and will if elected make health care less affordable or inaccessible, support industrial polluters – nearly 80 environmental rules were on the way out 2018 – and work against women’s reproductive rights.

I have a final hope concerning black men not planning to vote for Kamala Harris or (believe it or not) vote for Trump. Maybe we could hope for racial solidarity?

While I wait for the result there are (sometimes) some pods I am able to listen to, like Pod Save America and especially episodes with these kinds of titles Why You Should’t Panic About the Polls.