I don't know who needs to hear this, but in the wake of @KamalaHarris's historic selection, it is a moment to hold rival truths in balance.

Representation matters, and structure matters.

Representation can lead to structural change, and it can also crowd it out.

Both are true.

People from marginalized backgrounds bring lived experience to the table that changes the table and the discussion.

But they are also often used as symbols to prove the merits of the status quo.

They often have to accept that status quo as the cost of rising in the system.

It must remain possible to have complex thoughts about moments like this.

Caring about representation shouldn't prevent you from caring about structures. And vice versa.

It is progressive to diversify the room. But diversifying the room doesn't necessarily make it progressive.

Let's resist all becoming stock characters of our own tweets.

You can have real problems with @KamalaHarris's criminal-justice record and recognize that there is something special about America reflected in her story -- in a time when we need to be reminded of what's best in us.

You can be inspired beyond belief that someone who looks like you is now a vice-presidential nominee and still hold space for the contending truth that her political philosophy seems incompatible with the kind of real change needed for people who look like you truly to thrive.

The work for all of us is to make representation tend toward structural change. To not let it crowd out.

It can go either way. It is pressure, as Noam Chomsky says, that makes it more than symbolic, that changes what the room does, not just how it looks.