Should a black woman be chosen to run with Joe Biden? Yes

Joe Biden is not expected to select his presidential running-mate until July but the debate going on in the Democratic party is all about one question: should the former vice president pick a woman of colour as the Americans prefer to say. My view for what it's worth is a definite yes, and I say that for several reasons: first of all there are some brilliant possibilities among the potential candidates, many of them of African/American background such as Senator Kamala Harris (California) and Representative Val Demings (Florida), second it would send such a good message to voters wanting to vote for Biden but still a little wary, and third, and most important, because of Barack and Michelle Obama. Obama's success in being chosen as the president instead of tough-cookie, Vietnam prisoner of war, legendary senator John McCain, was not because Obama was black and McCain was white but because the youthful, elegant Barack Obama inspired the nation to vote for him. The fact that he was black was of course historically momentous for the United States and therefore made his victory even more special. Michelle turned into a global superstar, like her husband. Then along came Donald Trump and Mike Pence, two white men of wholly conservative persuasion, and started obliterating everything Obama had stood for. Things now need some readdressing. If Biden picks an African/American running-mate it will be seen, hopefully, as a signal to the whole country and to the world that the Oval Office is as much a preserve for black and Asian leaders as it is for white. It would also be a sgnificant gesture to the Obamas and to the people who adored them that, having set the precedent in 2008 and changed history, the 44th president was not a one-off but the first of many to come. These four reasons are why it should be relatively easy for Biden to say to himself, "I'm going to narrow the choice down to African/American candidates. Sorry Elizabeth Warren". Just as Obama was a first, so too would be a black female vice president. And that, I think, would be good for America. That's if Biden and his running-mate succeed in beating Trump and Pence, and that is by no means a foregone conclusion.