Vice President Kamala Harris: What her ascend to office means to Jamaicans, Indians, and all people
"Harris epitomizes what America is today... She is a first-generation American, and only in America, in one generation could you reach where she is." -Walker-Huntington
On October 20, 1964, Kamala Devi Harris was born in Oakland, California. Her father Donald J. Harris immigrated from Jamaica in 1961 and her mother Shyamala Gopalan migrated from India in 1960. Kamala Harris grew up in West Berkeley with her sister Maya Harris, an area filled largely by African American descendants. Being of a Jamaican-Indian heritage, Harris practiced religious activities at Baptist and Hindu temples. Occasionally she and her sister would visit her mother’s family in Chennai, India and her father’s family in Jamaica.
"Harris epitomizes what America is today... She is a first-generation American, and only in America, in one generation could you reach where she is." -Walker-Huntington
Kamala Harris, the daughter of two immigrants, will be setting the record as the first women, the first Indian American and the first Jamaican-American to ascend to the office of Vice President and the first woman to hold the post. Indeed, this is a remarkable achievement. She had previously served in the US Senate from 2017 to 2021 and before that was the Attorney General of California.
She has become a great inspiration as she is paving the way for Caribbean people, Indians and all people of colour by taking on such high position in US politics, which as we all know has long been dominated by whites only.
Although Kamala Harris, a first generation American, getting elected as the next Vice-president has become a great celebration to many, it hasn’t been that case for all; to which Kamala Harris replied by saying, ‘‘I am who I am. I’m good with it. You might need to figure it out, but I’m fine with it. My mother understood very well that she was raising two black daughters, she knew that her adopted homeland would see Maya and me as black girls, and she was determined to make sure we would grow into confident, proud black women.” She wrote on her autobiography, ‘The Truths We Hold.’
Indeed, she grew to be a confident and proud black woman. A true inspiration for people of colour all around the world. Indian, Caribbean, and black people on a whole are extremely proud and eagerly anticipating her legacy as a politician.
Elizabeth Swan
Senior Staff Reporter
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