If Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris win the 2020 presidential election, Harris would become the first Black woman and Asian-American to serve in the role of a vice president of the United States.
A native of Oakland, California, Harris is a graduate of Howard University, a historically Black university in Washington, D.C. While at the prestigious HBCU, Harris joined the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority — and journalist Soledad O’Brien joked in an interview with the Heavy Live With Scoop B Show that if Biden and Harris win, “all the AKAs will be insufferable.”
What Is Alpha Kappa Alpha?
The Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority is considered one of the nation’s largest Greek-letter organizations. Founded January 15, 1908, at Howard University, the group’s motto is “By Culture and By Merit” and their colors are pink and green.
Alpha Kappa Alpha has over 1,000 chapters located in the United States, the Caribbean, Canada and South Africa, and the sorority has a membership of over 300,000 women internationally, with 90,000 active members of diverse backgrounds and professions.
Notable AKAs include journalist and businesswoman Star Jones, actress Phylicia Rashad, tennis player and pro-golfer Althea Gibson, actress and comedian Wanda Sykes and actress Vanessa Bell Calloway.
Imagine a world where Biden and Harris win the 2020 presidential election and Harris becomes the country’s vice president. “All the AKA’s will be insufferable,” Soledad O’Brien joked on this week’s episode of the Heavy Live With Scoop B Show.
“Already I say this as a Delta and I’m trying to give them props because if she becomes vice president … but the constant reminding to the Deltas that she’s an AKA, I don’t know. We’re going to give them their moment so they can gloat you know, we’re going to let them have their moment because they deserve it but … still.”
For those keeping score at home: Delta Sigma Theta was founded on January 13, 1913, with a mission primarily focused on the Black community and the motto, “Intelligence is the Torch of Wisdom.”
The first public act of Delta Sigma Theta was participating in the Women’s Suffrage March in Washington, D.C., on March 3, 1913. Today, it is the largest African American Greek-lettered organization.
In addition to O’Brien, notable Delta’s include actress and activist Ruby Dee Davis, civil rights and women’s rights activist Dorothy I. Height, civil rights leader Barbara Jordan, politician and author Shirley Chisholm, actress Keshia Knight Pulliam, poet Dr. Nikki Giovanni, actress and model Cicely Tyson, and musicians Aretha Franklin and Lena Horne.
Deltas and AKAs have had a storied rivalry for years, with both of their missions set on uplifting Black women.
GettyTrump declared a win in Pennsylvania.
In addition to talking about sororities during the interview, O’Brien discussed whether the presidential election in 2004 between George W. Bush and John Kerry and this year’s election between President Trump and Joe Biden look similar in the eyes of American voters.
“Yes, but also no,” O’Brien said. She continued:
Those ‘other thans’ are so huge. We’re in the biggest public health crisis of the last 100 years, so that’s a pretty big difference. I think that the misinformation often led by the president in the White House itself is just a whole other level that we’re dealing with than 2004. I think what President Trump himself is both what he can command in attention and also a lot of the right-wing media that follows him and elevates him and that gives him a platform; I think that’s really, really different. I think it’s more different than it was back then in 2004. So yeah sort of but, with some variables. Very, very big differences I would say and I even think just social media itself as you say because, all of those things that I just mentioned are kind of elevating him more on social media, so I think that’s a big difference too. Like in 2000 with Bush v. Gore and even though it’s a little bit like that as well, in terms of the chaos; I don’t think … it’s not the same. Again for all those same reasons. It was just a different era. And I do think that social media changes the landscape very, very dramatically. So I don’t know. I wouldn’t say 2000. I wouldn’t say 2004. I certainly wouldn’t say 2008 – I think what’s making things complicated and a little bit scary for pollsters and people who are pundits who get s*** wrong a lot; I think that it’s very different and there are a lot of different variables. Even the fact that the turnout is so much higher. Who’s turning out and whose message is resonating and I think that makes the big difference. … I don’t think that it’s the same.
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