When Prof Benjamin gave a commencement speech at Spelman College in April this year, Kamala Harris was not a presidential nominee. 

The unfolding genocide in Gaza was only into its eighth month, and though the dead numbered well into the tens of thousands, we had not yet seen Israeli boots on Lebanese soil, nor American bombs falling in Beirut.

Donald Trump was the presumptive Republican candidate. Joe Biden, the bumbling, fumbling incumbent. 

Notwithstanding his very public physical and mental failure, it still seemed unconscionable that the Democrats could continue to support Israel in its psychotic bid to obliterate Palestine and Palestinians and redraw the regional map, publicly at least. 

Nobody expected them to change course for moral reasons  — that horse bolted with the Mayflower — but there was hope, it being an election year, that hunger for votes would align with moral reasoning. 

Yet here we are. 

With Biden a bungling afterthought, Harris has proven herself equally as complicit, and so managed what once seemed unthinkable — posit the hitherto cartoonish Trump as an anti-war candidate. 

It may well cost them the election.

Prof Benjamin’s speech was not about genocide, politics, or American foreign policy. It was about sisterhood, student activism, the inner conflict of personal ambition versus the collective good. Hope, regret, and the promise of a better tomorrow. 

“Black faces in high places” may have been the headline, but, boy, there were layers upon layers of clear-eyed critical thinking packed into 14 minutes. 

I immediately thought of Benjamin when the US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas, accused Francesca Albanese of antisemitism during the week, effectively declaring war on her good name. 

So too, when Beyoncé followed the Obamas to the stage and endorsed Harris without expressing a scintilla of empathy for genocided Palestinians or the besieged people of Lebanon, choosing instead to hide behind the mask of motherhood, as if that forgives running with the hare to sell records, but hunting with the devious hound when votes are on the line. 

The professor did not mention Malcolm X, but the actions of Thomas, Harris, the Obamas, and Beyoncé stink of Malcolm’s suspicions that celebrities — those who had proximity to capital, fame, and fortune — could not be aligned or reconciled with the “Black masses.” 

He framed them as a group separate from the people they claimed to represent. While many begin pure of intent, proximity to power corrupts. Of course, this is true, regardless of skin colour, but in the context of next week’s election, Malcolm’s scepticism has never seemed more prescient.

Maysoon Zayid is a Palestinian-American comedian, actor, author, and disability advocate who describes herself as a onetime die-in-the-wool Democrat. 

She started campaigning for the party in 1992 and has worked on and supported the presidential campaigns of Barak Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Biden. 

Had things gone differently under this administration she might have been on stage at the Democratic National Convention as an advocate for the rights of the disabled. 

Next week, for the first time in her adult life, she is choosing not to vote.

“I wouldn’t vote for democrats this year for all the money in the world,” she tells me from her home in New York.

 “In 2016, Hillary Clinton lost Michigan, and it cost her the election. They’re doing it again.” 

Zayid, who spends months every year in Palestine running an arts programme for disabled and orphaned children in refugee camps, claims the Dems have learned nothing.

“Harris is repeating the exact same mistake, but, in addition to alienating Michigan [which has one of the highest number of Muslim voters in the US], she’s alienated the youth vote, too, by patronising and dismissing the student protesters who have been on the streets and campuses protesting what’s happening in the Middle East.

“Her messaging has been nothing short of ghoulish, effectively telling voters: “I know you don’t like genocide, but don’t you want cheaper groceries?” 

To compound the arrogance of the Democrats, when they do address the question of genocide and Palestine, the mask slips completely. 

On Wednesday night in Michigan, Bill Clinton told voters: “I understand why young Palestinian and Arab Americans in Michigan think too many people have died — I get that, but…”

“Hamas makes sure that they’re shielded by civilians, they’ll force you to kill civilians, if you want to defend yourself.”

Clinton continued: “They [Jews] were there before their [Muslims] faith existed.” 

It’s the type of psychobabble you’d expect of a drunk uncle at a wedding, and Zayid is appalled that the Democrats have such little care for Muslim and Arab votes that they don’t even pretend anymore.

“It’s as if they’ve chosen to deliberately lose this election, because they’re not even lying. You can make campaign promises you have no intention of fulfilling. That’s what politicians do. 

“Instead, Harris has basically told us: ‘I’m a woman. A woman of colour, no less, and I’m going to be more genocidal than any man before me.’ It’s insane.” 

“No woman should ever put Bill Clinton on stage. And it’s no surprise when he’s up there he leans into this fairytale that religion should ever have anything to do with real estate and indigenous rights. That to me is just text book supremacy.” Why do it then? 

Under Biden and Harris, the US government has provided $22.76bn (€21bn) in military aid to Israel since October 7 and haven’t as much as hinted at a policy shift post-election. 

Previous administrations have masked their support. 

Biden and Harris have screamed from the rooftops.

“It seems to me that the calculation is an American colony in the middle east is more lucrative to the Democrats than the one in the US.

“Harris is a much younger woman of color running against Trump. She could have electrified the youth. She is the candidate the Republicans mocked for being a ‘childless cat lady.’ The bar was so low, the messaging could’ve just humanised Palestinians and it would’ve been enough to win, but instead she has chosen to lean into genocide, and in choosing appalling surrogates like Clinton, she’s only amplifying a supremacy complex that might sabotage what was an open goal for them.” 

There’s more. Zayid has cerebral palsy and claims the disabled community have been badly let down by this administration.

“Biden fumbled the ball on disability. He was all about the disabled vote during the last election. He couldn’t pass the healthcare reforms the disabled community really needed, and that could potentially distance those voters.” 

“The Dems are in trouble, and they’ve nobody to blame but themselves. Ignoring the Arab and Muslim vote. Students. The disabled. You have to factor in, too, that many white women who may have voted for Hillary or Biden, may not want to vote for a Black Indian woman they don’t consider Christian.” 

Of all the players in the party, Ziyad is perhaps most disappointed with the Obamas, who she says should know better.

“I can’t believe it. They know the history. Obama sat beside Edward Siad. He knows the reality. To hear how he now talks to Arab Americans. The way he speaks down to African American men and minority communities. I was never naive about Obama and his foreign policy, but I trusted him on civil rights and healthcare and having a moral compass, relatively speaking.” What’s most surprising to Ziyad is how uncaring they are.

“These people know PR better than anybody. To watch them speak about genocide the way they are now…it’s tarnishing their legacy.” 

What, then, of the alternative? If, as Ziyad suggests, there are enough lapsed Democrats who will abstain, as she is, there must surely be those who will bypass a third-party candidate like Jill Stein and vote for Trump?

“I never would. But I didn’t lose any comedy gigs when I criticised Donald trump, I lost everything when I criticised Biden and Harris. 

“That I — somebody who practically lost Palestinian friends because I stupidly defended the party before now — the fact I am not voting… I have so much to lose, but nothing is worth voting for people who vehemently support the mass killing and disabling of children.

“Biden and Harris also deprived Americans of a primary. It allowed no opportunity to explore an anti-genocide candidate.

“Trump is cheap,” she says, despairingly, “Maybe the only hope is he won’t be as willing to write the cheque.”