The NAACP Image Awards were held on Saturday night. Keke Palmer won Entertainer of the Year, and Taraji P.Henson, Ayo Edebiri and GloRilla also won Image Awards. Beyonce and Kendrick Lamar both won Image Awards for their 2024 albums and songs. The Wayans family were inducted into the NAACP Hall of Fame, and they bizarrely gave Dave Chappelle the President’s Award (Chappelle is massively problematic these days, but sure). Many people were waiting for the Chairman’s Award, which the NAACP announced in advance. They gave Kamala Harris the Chairman’s Award for her historic presidential candidacy and vice presidency. Kamala arrived at the show with her husband Doug, and they walked the carpet together. This was not her first public appearance since Donald Trump came into office, but it was her first awards show. Here’s her speech:
I saw a lot of people on social media saying that this was Kamala telling people that she’s going to run for president again. I’m not so sure? It was reported, around the inauguration, that Harris had told her staff to stay ready, that she wasn’t done. There are rumors flying around that she might run for governor of California, which would not surprise me. But would she run for president again? I honestly don’t know, and she probably doesn’t know either – by that I mean she hasn’t decided yet. I took her speech as Kamala knowing that every person with sense is horrified by what Trump and Elon Musk are doing and she knows she has to offer some kind of hopeful message. She said, in part: “While we have no illusions about what we are up against in this chapter in our American story, this chapter will be written not simply by whoever occupies the Oval Office nor by the wealthiest among us. The American story will be written by you. Written by us. By we the people.”
She also said: “Some see the flames on our horizons, the rising waters in our cities, the shadows gathering over our democracy and ask ‘What do we do now?’ But we know exactly what to do, because we have done it before. And we will do it again. We use our power. We organize, mobilize. We educate. We advocate. Our power has never come from having an easy path.” As in, yes, this is a really low moment in American history, but we have to keep doing the work. I get that and sure, I’m already thinking about the Virginia governor’s election this year. But the next four years are just going to be f–king awful, and I don’t blame people for choosing to check out or doing whatever they need to do to survive the onslaught.
Screencap from YT, photos courtesy of Getty.