Adama Bah, founder of Afri-Kana. Photo via Documented NY.
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Even in the midst of a heated election, with Democrats raising record-breaking amounts of money to get an edge over the Republican nominee, Donald Trump, hesitation about the future of U.S. democracy is growing more prevalent among U.S. citizens. This can be encapsulated in the country’s stance on the genocide in Palestine. Despite representing a party in which a growing number of people are concerned with the well-being of Palestinians and advocating for intervention, President Joe Biden has maintained supportive relations with Israel and continues to supply the country with weaponry. With nicknames like “Genocide Joe” and a lawsuit accusing him of being complicit in Israel’s assault on Gaza, it’s clear that the people strongly disapprove of President Biden’s conduct surrounding the war in Gaza.
However, when elections rolled around again, the Democrats reluctantly rallied behind him. At the end of the day, beating Trump was the most important factor. Watching Biden and Trump’s most recent presidential debate, viewers could see that the nominees were more focused on pointing out the flaws in the other candidate’s plans rather than highlighting the benefits of theirs, such as the opening question on economic plans. After Vice President Kamala Harris replaced Biden on the ballot, her promise was to do whatever was necessary to beat Trump.
Despite beliefs that our form of democracy is the only way forward, choosing between the lesser of two evils hardly seems democratic. In fact, political scientists have noted that economic factors that previously would’ve decided whether or not an incumbent candidate was re-elected are no longer particularly significant, as people vote to beat the other party. Politics, in the sense of elections, political parties, and presidents, have become dangerously empty by not actually touching the lives of the people but floating somewhere above their heads. If it’s the job of the government to guide the body politic and act as its rational mind, then it’s failing miserably. The disconnect between the people and their government has rendered the government non-responsive to the people’s needs, and the facade of democracy has started to crack. Due to this non-responsiveness, any change cannot begin in the government, but instead must begin in the system of ethics that subconsciously guides it.
The U.S. prides itself on being a country that employs an ethics of justice. This implies an ethical system that believes moral problems stem from conflicting rights and solves moral problems with formal and abstract thinking based on principles. Thus, moral development is gained through an understanding of rights, rules, and principles. There is also a high priority placed on autonomy. This seems to lay out the basic values of the U.S. political system. The American stance on issues such as providing aid to refugees and ensuring equity to all groups demonstrates the utilization of an ethics of justice. There are no personal relationships developed or any consideration of the specifics of the situation; the rules are absolute and ironclad. However, this just means that the political burden—the burden of structuring society—has fallen onto the people themselves.
As opposed to an ethics of justice, an ethics of care is seen displayed among a variety of organizations that seek to address the areas in society in which the government is failing. An ethics of care believes that moral problems arise from opposing duties, looks at the context of a moral problem, and regards moral development as growth in our understanding of our responsibilities and relationships. There’s an emphasis put on relationship building and the ability to identify with others. The ethics of care is often feminized, while the ethics of justice can be masculinized. While presidential candidates play to this angle, they fail to show up when it comes to actually showing partiality to the people. This can be seen in Trump’s promises to increase taxes on the wealthy, followed by a tax cut for the wealthy and the largest tax cut for corporate income seen in history. This tactic is bipartisan, seen also in Biden’s non-responsiveness to his constituency regarding Palestine. The things that people need to be addressed—that impact their day-to-day lives—are ignored in favor of hot-button topics that will generate fear and get them re-elected, such as abortion rights or immigration. This leads to a disconnect with reality, such as the white working class blaming immigrants for their economic struggles.
Those utilizing an ethics of care frequently check their actions to see if they align with their desired identity. This trait is demonstrated among community organizations that are taking actual care of their individual members rather than providing the poorly designed, over-systematized programs employed by politicians. Adama Bah, the founder of Afri-Kana—a Harlem-based organization focused on providing aid to Black immigrants—speaks about how she’s constantly shifting the exact formation of her organization in order to respond to a growing number of needs within the community. As she noticed the need for child care, tutoring, and provision of food, she opened her offices to create safe spaces for children, connected people with tutors, and supplied a local food kitchen. Her actions are totally in line with her projected ideals of providing aid for those who have been most abandoned by the government and non-profit organizations. She is also restructuring her operations in direct response to the needs of the people in order to improve their lives.
Adama Bah goes further than just providing services to one community. She provides services to native New Yorkers in Harlem as well, another historically underserved community. This prevents growing resentment between citizens and immigrants, and it fosters the building of a unified community. There’s the basic understanding that there is enough for everybody, and it’s the job of those implementing infrastructure to figure out how to allocate it. This community-building ability is notably absent among our presidential candidates, whose strategies consist of riling up their own electorate into attacking the opposing party. This strategy may ensure victory, but it also ensures dissatisfaction post-election. This is hardly a tenable situation, as demonstrated by the January 6th storming of the Capitol. A more direct responsiveness to the complex and interconnected needs of the community is required.
Afri-Kana isn’t the only organization born to be a direct response to the people’s needs. Reading Partners is a national organization focused on fighting systemic inequality and racism by providing extra assistance with literacy skills in underserved school districts. Despite claims that we are bordering on a post-racial society, the wounds left by inequality have been immortalized by systems created during these eras. Much as the flaws in U.S. democracy can be seen in recent failures of the system, these same flaws have been successful in creating the system of inequality they were made for. According to Reading Partners, there is a significant gap in literacy achievement between white students and students of color, with 90% of students receiving extra support identifying as people of color. This failure in the provision of education may seem small or insignificant following an ethics of justice since, technically, the same rules are being applied across demographics, but it fails to acknowledge the reality of the situation and paves the way for future inequity. Reading Partners incorporates itself into our education system, directly addresses this systemic failure, and provides services to over 6,000 students. It actively champions the ideas of equality and justice that the U.S. government claims to promote. An ethics of care focuses on the overarching context of a moral situation before acting, one that allows for the inequity experienced in the past to be overcome by actions in the present.
The intensification of modern politics has transformed elections into a fight for the identity of the U.S. as a nation. However, the triumph of either identity means little for the reality of its soul, despite Biden and Trump arguing the contrary during their campaigns. We aren’t voting for people who can truly run our country, but for figureheads. They fail to analyze if their actions are in line with what they represent and fall short of who they dream themselves to be. Scholars have pointed out that when introducing ethics of care into a system, it’s crucial to allow it to be led by those receiving care to prevent it from morphing into paternalism. When scholars theorize about the potential of combining an ethics of care and an ethics of justice, an emphasis is placed on how important relationships are in teaching us how to be autonomous human beings. It seems as though a similar emphasis would work in introducing an ethics of care into America’s overbearing ethics of justice system.
If the dynamics of the relationships were to be flipped, and Adama Bah and the organizers of Reading Partners were to be acknowledged as political authorities from whom politicians have a lot to learn, the organizations would benefit from the stability, structure, and financial support of the government. The government itself would learn how to effectively govern and respond to the needs of the people, increasing its longevity and the country’s unity. The U.S. government can’t regard itself as a fully autonomous being when it’s defined by its relationship with the people. In order to be a fully functioning government, it must learn how to properly show up in these relationships—something that can be taught by organizations that are already doing so.
The mind of the U.S. is desperately repeating that everything is fine and wonderful while the body politic displays the wounds and results of everything not being okay. Desperate to embody the ideals of democracy, it leaves the majority of its people in the dust and the ideals of democracy half buried alongside them. The people have dug out, dusted off those ideals, and taken on the heavy mantle of politics to organize society in a way that serves them. In order to become functional, the U.S. government must come back to the reality of its country and learn from those who have gained a firsthand understanding of what it means to be truly political and live your words through every action.
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This article was edited by Renee Agostini and Max Cowan.
