A number of influential black figures have signed an open letter, urging the Democratic presidential nominee to choose a black woman as his Vice President.
- Aug 12, 2020
AceShowbiz - Diddy has joined over 100 influential Black male figures to back a call for Democratic nominee Joe Biden to choose a Black woman as his running mate in the U.S. presidential election.
The letter was composed as a statement of solidarity in response to the more-than-700 Black women who signed a letter previously calling for a Black woman Vice President.
According to the letter, published in the Atlanta Daily World, they wrote, "As someone who has said throughout the campaign that VP Joe Biden needs to choose a Black woman VP, the urgency for that pick has gone from something that SHOULD happen to something that HAS to happen."
The music mogul is among signatories including Charlamagne tha God, Ty Dolla $ign, E-40, Jacquees, Nick Cannon, Will Packer, Timbaland, Al B. Sure!, Felix da Housecat, and Doug E. Fresh.
Six of the 13 reported contenders in the running to accompany Biden on the Democratic ticket are Black women: Senator Kamala Harris, former national security adviser Susan Rice, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, Stacey Abrams, the former Democratic leader of the Georgia House of Representatives, and congresswomen Karen Bass and Val Demings.
The letter further criticises the Biden campaign's intense vetting process for Black women.
"It disgusts us that Black women are not just being vetted in this VP process but unfairly criticized and scrutinized," the signatories charge.
"Failing to select a Black woman in 2020 means you will lose the election. We don't want to choose between the lesser of two evils and we don't want to vote the devil we know versus the devil we don't because we are tired of voting for devils - period."
Biden has pledged to select a woman as his running mate and is expected to make an announcement shortly.
