New York Times

I’m hopeful about what she will show us, but let’s face it, nothing about Harris just now justifies her being treated as some kind of once-in-a-generation phenom or savior. This is not about substance, but optics. Harris is being received on the basis of a category she fits into rather than who she is as an individual. The thing sweeping so many people up is the idea that her being Black — and a Black woman at that — would in some resonant way shape her presidency. That it would be somehow significant that the president “looks like America.” That Harris’ Blackness would be a meaningful part of “not going back.”