In The 2024 Election, Progress Looks Ugly: Allyship Fatigue

Candice Lola is a horror writer, essayist, and writing instructor based in Brooklyn, NY. She holds a master’s from NYU where she studied Black protest literature, human rights, and creative writing. A TEDx presenter and longtime editor, Candice’s literary courses have been shared at Midnight & Indigo, Arizona State University, and small bookstores. Her longform and short story writing has been featured in publications including HuffPost, Honeysuckle, Today, Curls, Skidmark Zine, Kinks & Culture, Furious Lit, and Midnight & Indigo.

In the first of a series on the 2024 election, Candice reflects here on the lessons Americans may have learned - or not - about looking for a presidential “savior” and the fatigue of the political cycle. Is this really progress?

HONEYSUCKLE MAGAZINE: What are your concerns about the upcoming election?

CANDICE LOLA: I’m mainly concerned that progressives will abandon what we’ve learned about our collective power in favor of another presidential” savior” figure. It feels as if sympathetic Americans are feeling the “allyship fatigue” we coined in 2020, and want to look away from the rest of the world once again.

Why do you feel that way about "allyship fatigue"? What have you witnessed, read, heard and seen?

The Harris endorsement is bringing out strange language on the left. She is already being referred to as "Mamala" by some groups, which hearkens back to the dehumanized, agreeable, and comforting Mammy figure of an antebellum America. Valid critiques of her platform are met with threats of a Trump presidency or phrases like “we need to take care of home first” instead of consideration for new pathways that can serve more of us.

What are your thoughts about this phenomenon?

The left seems to be leaning into a “scarcity mindset” that’s beginning to blind us. We are already forgetting that questioning the scraps the DNC was offering is what brought us Harris as a candidate. Our disruption is what created a third option; we cannot revert back to accepting the “lesser of two evils.”

What are your primary concerns for the next three months of the 2024 election cycle?

I’m nervous that we will spend the next three months silencing dissent instead of voicing exactly what we want to [regarding] progressive candidates. If they want us to vote for them, then we need them to listen to us, and the next three months need to be spent putting them to task for them to represent us.

What can we expect from your political coverage in these next months?

My focus will use history and current events to follow the social part of the current socio-political dynamic. I want to report on ways we can and already are working together, and I want to dissect the thought-stopping tactics that are developing in progressivism. My goal is to remind people that the power to reclaim democracy has always been with us, and so has the responsibility.

Stay tuned for more on the 2024 election from Candice Lola! To learn more about her work, visit candicelola.com or follow @candice_lola on Instagram.