PBS.org
By Andrea Thompson
Watching the two part documentary series “And She Could Be Next” is an interesting experience, especially given the last film I watched that dealt with the state of our national politics. But where so many films about our election process tend to give in to the cynicism of a system that so often favors the white and wealthy, I’ve found people of color tend to take a different view, one that can’t afford to give in to despair.
In “And She Could Be Next,” which aired in two parts this week and follows various women of color running for office, what we see feels like a new coalition in the making, one that is electing women of color to the highest offices for the first time. And they’re actively supported by many young people who say they want to push back against the forces that are dehumanizing them. Many of them see volunteering, and especially voting, as an important component of the change they wish to see, a change to elect someone who could help enact that change. If many think it won’t make a difference, there’s enough pushback and voter suppression throughout “And She Could Be Next” to suggest that those in power disagree.
That pushback also happens to be a strategy of dehumanization that not only the various candidates, but the volunteers who work for them, speak of again and again. From the violent response via text on one campaign, to how canvassers of color are followed around in some neighborhoods they’re assigned, and how many immigrants are constantly questioned about their American identities, which culminates in the militarizing of the border and constant crackdowns on immigrants.
The truly frustrating, yet depressingly predictable thing is how little the women running are allowed to be angry, not just not just about the violent rhetoric they face in campaigns, but about the types of violence they experience in their lives. One of the most blatant examples is Lucy McBath, who discovered that her son’s education and solidly middle class upbringing was unable to shield him from gun violence, but there’s also Rashida Tlaib, who discovered her son felt he should hide that he was Muslim, and rising star Bushra Amiwala, a 19-year-old DePaul student running for Cook County Commissioner, who also discovered how much Islam is feared by many Americans.
The real star though, is Stacey Abrams, and not just because she’s become known outside of the usual political junkie circles. It’s because what happened to her is appalling. She didn’t just run for governor in Georgia, a state which apparently has the most voter suppression laws in the country, she was up against Brian Kemp, who is so cartoonishly regressive his campaign ads are like SNL sketches of Republican messages. And we get to see how Abrams was robbed, on the ground, and in real time, even though she more than had the votes, the coalition, and all the volunteers at the polling locations to not only had out water and food to voters waiting for hours, but to ensure they had the right information in an election where that information changed at the last minute.
And She Could Be Next
Abrams also calmly responded to Kemp’s various accusations even as he was responsible for all the obstacles and suppression her campaign was facing, as Kemp was also the chief elections officer, and someone who took pride in making it more difficult to get people to vote, or removing their votes entirely. Just as Abrams refuses to concede to a process that was so overtly rigged against her, “And She Could Be Next” isn’t much interested in giving fuel to the arguments against them, and the documentary is all the better for it. There’s no call to “understand” people trying to build the wall, who demonize a religion, and who advocate violent rhetoric. It merely calls for change, a message that is more needed than it should be.
The two part documentary is streaming for free here.
