IndiaParentMagazine

Kamala Harris, a Woman of Many Firsts

Joe Biden hits several constructive buttons with single option: carefully selecting Kamala Harris as his running mate

By Meena Yeggina
India Parent Magazine
Updated August 13, 2020

August 11, 2020 was historic for Indian Americans: at exactly 1:17pm, the Democratic nominee for President of the United States, Joe Biden, announced through Twitter that he had chosen Kamala Harris, a U.S. Senator from California, as his running mate for the November 2020 presidential election.

Biden’s tweet was followed by Harris’s tweet, which stated:
“Joe Biden can unify the American people because he’s spent his life fighting for us. And as president, he’ll build an America that lives up to our ideals. I’m honored to join him as our party’s nominee for Vice President, and do what it takes to make him our Commander-in-Chief.”

Since then, Whatsapp messages of how proud Indian Americans are about this decision have been pouring in the thousands. Many have already started raising campaign funds for 55-year-old Harris.

“We have raised $85,000 for them overnight,” informed Dr. Rohini Ashok of Santa Clara County.


Little Kamala Harris, left, with Maya, her younger 
sister and mother Shymala Gopalan Harris
(Picture: courtesy Kamala Harris)

Susmita Bhatacharya, an electrical engineer, global engineering program manager and artistic director/founder of Payal Kathak Joy said, “What a positive role model. The whole world is talking about Kamala Harris - her family roots, her confidence, her strength, her determination, her leadership - she is an amazing, earned success story for any immigrant family in America. Such a proud moment for all of us and for our children.”

Prominent health professional Dr. Durga Madala of the Bay Area remarks that she is very pleased Harris became Biden’s running mate.

She further adds, “Kamala is a fighter. She will fight for what is good for America. She is not currently and will never be a pushover. We have seen her exceptional record in the Senate. We have seen her, a woman of color, refuse to be steamrolled by privileged white men like Brett Kavanaugh and Jeff Sessions. Kamala is the personification of the progress that America needs.”

Joe Biden hits several constructive buttons with single option: carefully selecting Kamala Harris as his running mate

1. Minority
Kamala Devi Harris, a colored woman with mixed racial ancestry (her parents are immigrants from Jamaica and India), serves as a bridge between many races and cultures. She stands as a strong symbolic leader by not relenting to conservative influences, even from within her own roots and lived-in communities. 2020 has been a year that raised strong emotions and protests on the death of George Floyd in the hands of a white policeman. Seeing Harris in the midst of elections may act as a balm on many contemporary social wounds.

Writes Kamala Harris on her instagram:
“My parents marched and shouted in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. It’s because of them and the folks who also took to the streets to fight for justice that I am where I am. They laid the path for me, as only the second Black woman ever elected to the United States Senate. Years later, we are still fighting for justice and to confront the systemic racism that has plagued our country since its earliest days. But the power of this movement cannot be denied. Change is possible.”

2. Agent Of Contrast
Writes The New York Times:
“Harris is a distinguished public servant with a résumé — U.S. senator from California, state attorney general — unquestionably suited to this exhilarating and daunting opportunity, which she has earned. She is also an agent of contrast, emphasizing the difference between the Republican ticket and the Democratic one, between Trump’s politics of division and Biden’s politics of inclusion.”

Last year, Kamala Harris spoke out against Indian external affairs minister S. Jaishankar’s decision to cancel a planned meeting with US legislators when members of Congress refused to accede to his demand (Jaishankar sought for Pramila Jayapal – a Indian American Congresswoman from Washington State, and a vocal critic of the Modi government’s handling of Kashmir – be excluded from the event).

Kamala Harris tweeted saying “It’s wrong for any foreign government to tell Congress what members are allowed in meetings on Capitol Hill. I stand with @RepJayapal, and I'm glad her colleagues in the House did too.”

3. Woman
Having been raised by a strong Indian mother makes Harris a relatable reflection in the eyes of African and Indian American women. Her mother, who brought her and her sister up single handedly after divorce — beginning from when Harris was only seven years old — had a huge impact on Harris.

In her memoir, Harris writes, “there is no title or honor on earth I’ll treasure more than to say I am Shyamala Gopalan Harris’s daughter. That is the truth I hold dearest of all.” Harris adds that her mother instilled in her that she should fight “systems in a way that causes them to be fairer, and don’t be limited by what has always been.”

Harris’s book further details how her own experiences, particularly her upbringing by her single mother, have influenced her policymaking and political career. For instance, it was her mother’s struggle with cancer that pushed Harris to shine a light on the greater healthcare crisis in the US.

“As I continue the battle for a better healthcare system, I do so in her name,” Harris wrote in a New York Times Harris wrote in a New York Times op-ed in 2018.

4. Leader of many Firsts
Harris created history several times and has achieved her success with single-minded dedication. She is the first female DA of San Francisco, first female attorney general of California, the first Indian-American elected to the US Senate, and the only the second female African American senator ever. After a convention vote, a formality still remaining, she'll be the first woman of color named to a major-party national ticket.”

Ultimately, whatever your political views are, isn’t it simply stunning and inspiring that immigrants like us can come to the U.S., fall in love, marry, have a child, and one day see their daughter grow up to be a DA, state attorney general, U.S. Senator, and a running mate on a presidential ticket? Isn’t that what America is all about? A land where dreams come true? That’s what Harris represents to so many of us — a dream actualized.