Vice President Kamala Harris’s performance during her first (and now only) debate against Donald Trump last Tuesday was one of the most dominant in modern American history. In many ways, it was a mirror image of President Biden’s massive failure of a debate against Trump months earlier. Harris utterly exposed the corrupt ex-president for the racist, ignorant, demagogue, and blusterous aspiring dictator that he truly is.

As I and others have explained, Donald Trump is best understood as a political version of a professional wrestling heel (villain) who lies, cheats, steals, and will do anything to win as he gains power from the boos and ire of the crowd. Trump is truly excellent in the role; the mainstream news media and political class are still unable to effectively grapple with Trump and his MAGA movement because they refuse to understand fascism and Trumpism as forms of performance theater.

In the context of professional wrestling, Kamala Harris would be what is known as a “shooter”: someone who has actual fighting skills, usually from boxing, martial arts, or Olympic wrestling, and can force an opponent to submit during a match if need be. In the world of professional wrestling “shooters” are among the most feared opponents because they have the potential to embarrass and cause serious physical harm to their opponents if they choose to.

During their debate, Harris metaphorically did exactly that. She is a former prosecutor who deftly presented her case against Trump as being unfit for office before an audience of tens of millions. In all, “The Prosecutor” versus “The Felon” was and is a marquee matchup right out of professional wrestling — and it more than lived up to its billing.

However, during the debate, there was something else happening with the 78-year-old Donald Trump. What transpired was disturbing and all too familiar for Black and brown Americans (especially those of a certain age with the lived experience of surviving the Jim and Jane Crow white supremacist terror regime). Trump’s face and overall emotions and demeanor were a portrait of White (male) rage. Kamala Harris, a Black South Asian woman, was humiliating Trump publicly and showed no........

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