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Kamala Harris: The South Asian American immigrant dream

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Published : Aug 12, 2020, 7:17 PM IST

Updated : Aug 13, 2020, 6:09 AM IST

Born in California to immigrant parents father Donald Harris and mother Shyamala Gopalan, Kamala Harris is now the first Black and South Asian American woman to run for the US Vice Presidency on a major party ticket. With her biracial roots and liberal, progressive views, it would be interesting to see how Kamala Harris if elected Vice President, deals with a majoritarian popular Hindu nationalist ruling party in India, writes senior journalist Smita Sharma.

American politician Kamala Harris (Pic Courtsey: Twitter)
American politician Kamala Harris (Pic Courtsey: Twitter)

New Delhi: In June of 2019 as the Democratic presidential candidates faced it off at the first primary debate Kamala Harris threw a forceful punch at Joe Biden.

“You know, there was a little girl in California who was a part of the second class to integrate her public schools and she was bused to school every day. That little girl was me,” said Senator Harris.

Harris seized the moment as she criticised Biden’s opposition to court-ordered busing of Black students into largely White districts, aimed at integrating American schools accused of segregating on race and socio-economic status.

Earlier hitting out at Biden for having invoked two Southern segregationists Democrat Senators James O. Eastland of Mississippi and Herman Talmadge of Georgia, to cite the ‘old-fashioned’ ‘civility’ of the 70s and 80s, Harris said, “I was actually very — it was hurtful to hear you talk about the reputations of two United States senators who built their reputations and career on the segregation of race in this country. And it was not only that, but you also worked with them to oppose busing.”

In January this year, Kamala Harris bowed out of the presidential contest but with her announcement as running mate for Democrat candidate Joe Biden, it is a monumental moment in American history.

Born in California to immigrant parents- father Donald Harris and mother Shyamala Gopalan who first met at UC Berkeley as graduate students active in the civil rights movement, Kamala Harris is now the first Black and South Asian American woman to run for the Vice Presidency on a major party ticket.

Her father Donald had immigrated from Jamaica. Her mother moved to the United States from Tamil Nadu as a young student at UC Berkeley.

Shyamala’s father PV Gopalan, an upright civil servant who fought corruption, supported his eldest daughter’s decision by digging into his retirement savings and allowing her to travel across the oceans to pursue her dream.

“My grandfather was one of the original Independence fighters in India, and some of my fondest memories from childhood were walking along the beach with him after he retired and lived in Besant Nagar, in what was then called Madras. He would take walks every morning along the beach with his buddies who were all retired government officials and they would talk about politics, about how corruption must be fought and about justice. They would laugh and voice opinions and argue, and those conversations, even more than their actions, had such a strong influence on me in terms in terms of learning to be responsible, to be honest, and to have integrity,” Kamala Harris recalled in an interview to Aziz Haniffa of India Abroad in 2009.

Kamala Harris has described her progressive grandfather as one of her favourite people in the world with whom she was a pen-pal for many years as he helped shape up her ideas of public service, in some interviews. But in public speeches, it is her mother whom Senator Harris has invoked regularly.

Her parents separated later when she was young and Kamala Harris along with her sister Maya was brought up by their mother Shyamala in Montreal.

“My mother, who raised me and my sister, was a proud woman. She was a brown woman. She was a woman with a heavy accent. She was a woman, who many times people would overlook her, or not take her seriously. Or because of her accent, assumed things about her intelligence. Now every time my mother proved them wrong. And because of who my mother was, what she believed, what she had the ability to dream was possible and then work to make possible, the fact that my mother never asked anyone permission to tell her what was possible is why, within one generation, I stand here as a serious candidate for the President of the United States,” Kamala Harris said in an earlier campaign the speech, video clip tweeted by her sister Maya following the big announcement to celebrate their mother.

With her biracial roots and liberal, progressive views, it would be interesting to see how Kamala Harris if elected Vice President, thus making her a potential Presidential front runner in 2024, deals with a majoritarian popular Hindu nationalist ruling party in India.

The Indo-American community may have filled up the stadium for the ‘Howdy Modi’ event In Houston to applaud and cheer the Trump-Modi bonhomie played out in public glare. But Kamala Harris’s strong Immigrant roots and Indian descent will be a strong reason for the South Asian American including Indo-American community to tilt for her.

Of the five Indo-Americans currently in the US Congress, all Democrats, with Raja Krishnamoorthy, Pramila Jayapal, Ro Khanna and Ami Bera in House of Representatives, and Kamala Harris in Senate, only Krishnamoorthy chose to attend the Houston event.

The others expressed their displeasure following the abrogation of Article 370 and communication blockade in Kashmir with Jayapal introducing a resolution last December, urging India “to end the restrictions on communications and mass detentions in Jammu and Kashmir” and “preserve religious freedom for all residents”.

Annoyed at the criticism, External Affairs minister, S Jaishankar, cancelled a scheduled meeting with members of the influential House Foreign Affairs Committee because of Congresswoman Jayapal’s presence in December 2019.

According to a Washington Post report, Chairman of the Committee Eliot Engel refused to give in to Jaishankar’s demand seeking Jayapal be dropped from the panel for the meeting to take place.

Kamala Harris backed her colleague in a tweet saying, "It's wrong for any foreign government to tell Congress what members are allowed in meetings on Capitol Hill."

According to prominent Pakistani daily Dawn, Harris in a statement in Texas, last year said, “We have to remind the Kashmiris that they are not alone in the world. We are keeping a track on the situation. There is a need to intervene if the situation demands.”

Also Read: Kamala Harris 'nasty, disrespectful' to Joe Biden: Trump

While the Indo-US relationship is a broad-based strategic partnership that enjoys bipartisan support in the US Congress, how will Kamala Harris’s views on secular progressive democracies impact ties with the Modi government if Joe Biden makes it to White House, will be important to watch out for.

Kamala Harris was the first Black woman in the Senate in more than a decade when she was elected in 2016.

She is the first Vice Presidential candidate to have graduated from the predominantly historically black Howard University in DC Today at 55, the former first Black District Attorney of San Francisco and former Attorney General of California serves on several high-profile committees in the Senate, including the Intelligence Committee and the Judiciary Committee.

The former top prosecutor has advocated racial justice legislation strongly in wake of the George Floyd killing that led to nationwide #ICantBreathe protests which resonated across the globe.

She has supported proposals to overhaul the police system to address systemic racism and make lynchings a federal crime.

At a time when Trump is playing the Law and Order card emulating Richard Nixon, Harris’s record as a prosecutor will be of importance.

Harris grabbed much attention as she intensively interrogated Trump administration officials and nominees including Brett M. Kavanaugh during his Supreme Court confirmation hearing and Attorney General Jeff Sessions during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing streamed live on television.

As California’s junior senator opposing Kavanaugh’s nomination Harris said, “We have a system of justice that is symbolized by a statue of a woman holding scales. And she wears a blindfold. Justice wears a blindfold because we have said in the United States of America, under our judicial system, justice should be blind to a person’s status. We have said that in our system of justice, justice should be blind to how much money someone has, to what you look like or who you love, to who your parents are and the language they speak. And every Supreme Court Justice must understand and uphold that ideal. And sir, should those cases come before you, Judge Kavanaugh, I am concerned whether you would treat every American equally or instead show allegiance to the political party and the conservative agenda that has shaped and built your career. I am concerned your loyalty would be to the President who appointed you and not to the Constitution of the United States.”

The job just got much tougher for Donald Trump’s Vice Presidential candidate Mike Pence to defend the President on issues of sexism, racism, law and policing as he gears up to face Kamala Harris in debates leading up to the November polls.

For now, while Harris’s presidential dream that she announced on Martin Luther King’s birthday in 2019 may have to wait for some time. But history has been made.

Shirley Chisholm, the New York congresswoman who became the first woman to seek the Democratic Party’s nomination for president said in 1972, “I want history to remember me not as the first Black woman to run for the presidency, but as a Black woman who lived in the 20th century and dared to be herself. I want to be remembered as a catalyst for change in America.”

That change paved the way today for another milestone in American history.

Also Read: Biden's notes: Do not hold grudges against Kamala Harris

New Delhi: In June of 2019 as the Democratic presidential candidates faced it off at the first primary debate Kamala Harris threw a forceful punch at Joe Biden.

“You know, there was a little girl in California who was a part of the second class to integrate her public schools and she was bused to school every day. That little girl was me,” said Senator Harris.

Harris seized the moment as she criticised Biden’s opposition to court-ordered busing of Black students into largely White districts, aimed at integrating American schools accused of segregating on race and socio-economic status.

Earlier hitting out at Biden for having invoked two Southern segregationists Democrat Senators James O. Eastland of Mississippi and Herman Talmadge of Georgia, to cite the ‘old-fashioned’ ‘civility’ of the 70s and 80s, Harris said, “I was actually very — it was hurtful to hear you talk about the reputations of two United States senators who built their reputations and career on the segregation of race in this country. And it was not only that, but you also worked with them to oppose busing.”

In January this year, Kamala Harris bowed out of the presidential contest but with her announcement as running mate for Democrat candidate Joe Biden, it is a monumental moment in American history.

Born in California to immigrant parents- father Donald Harris and mother Shyamala Gopalan who first met at UC Berkeley as graduate students active in the civil rights movement, Kamala Harris is now the first Black and South Asian American woman to run for the Vice Presidency on a major party ticket.

Her father Donald had immigrated from Jamaica. Her mother moved to the United States from Tamil Nadu as a young student at UC Berkeley.

Shyamala’s father PV Gopalan, an upright civil servant who fought corruption, supported his eldest daughter’s decision by digging into his retirement savings and allowing her to travel across the oceans to pursue her dream.

“My grandfather was one of the original Independence fighters in India, and some of my fondest memories from childhood were walking along the beach with him after he retired and lived in Besant Nagar, in what was then called Madras. He would take walks every morning along the beach with his buddies who were all retired government officials and they would talk about politics, about how corruption must be fought and about justice. They would laugh and voice opinions and argue, and those conversations, even more than their actions, had such a strong influence on me in terms in terms of learning to be responsible, to be honest, and to have integrity,” Kamala Harris recalled in an interview to Aziz Haniffa of India Abroad in 2009.

Kamala Harris has described her progressive grandfather as one of her favourite people in the world with whom she was a pen-pal for many years as he helped shape up her ideas of public service, in some interviews. But in public speeches, it is her mother whom Senator Harris has invoked regularly.

Her parents separated later when she was young and Kamala Harris along with her sister Maya was brought up by their mother Shyamala in Montreal.

“My mother, who raised me and my sister, was a proud woman. She was a brown woman. She was a woman with a heavy accent. She was a woman, who many times people would overlook her, or not take her seriously. Or because of her accent, assumed things about her intelligence. Now every time my mother proved them wrong. And because of who my mother was, what she believed, what she had the ability to dream was possible and then work to make possible, the fact that my mother never asked anyone permission to tell her what was possible is why, within one generation, I stand here as a serious candidate for the President of the United States,” Kamala Harris said in an earlier campaign the speech, video clip tweeted by her sister Maya following the big announcement to celebrate their mother.

With her biracial roots and liberal, progressive views, it would be interesting to see how Kamala Harris if elected Vice President, thus making her a potential Presidential front runner in 2024, deals with a majoritarian popular Hindu nationalist ruling party in India.

The Indo-American community may have filled up the stadium for the ‘Howdy Modi’ event In Houston to applaud and cheer the Trump-Modi bonhomie played out in public glare. But Kamala Harris’s strong Immigrant roots and Indian descent will be a strong reason for the South Asian American including Indo-American community to tilt for her.

Of the five Indo-Americans currently in the US Congress, all Democrats, with Raja Krishnamoorthy, Pramila Jayapal, Ro Khanna and Ami Bera in House of Representatives, and Kamala Harris in Senate, only Krishnamoorthy chose to attend the Houston event.

The others expressed their displeasure following the abrogation of Article 370 and communication blockade in Kashmir with Jayapal introducing a resolution last December, urging India “to end the restrictions on communications and mass detentions in Jammu and Kashmir” and “preserve religious freedom for all residents”.

Annoyed at the criticism, External Affairs minister, S Jaishankar, cancelled a scheduled meeting with members of the influential House Foreign Affairs Committee because of Congresswoman Jayapal’s presence in December 2019.

According to a Washington Post report, Chairman of the Committee Eliot Engel refused to give in to Jaishankar’s demand seeking Jayapal be dropped from the panel for the meeting to take place.

Kamala Harris backed her colleague in a tweet saying, "It's wrong for any foreign government to tell Congress what members are allowed in meetings on Capitol Hill."

According to prominent Pakistani daily Dawn, Harris in a statement in Texas, last year said, “We have to remind the Kashmiris that they are not alone in the world. We are keeping a track on the situation. There is a need to intervene if the situation demands.”

Also Read: Kamala Harris 'nasty, disrespectful' to Joe Biden: Trump

While the Indo-US relationship is a broad-based strategic partnership that enjoys bipartisan support in the US Congress, how will Kamala Harris’s views on secular progressive democracies impact ties with the Modi government if Joe Biden makes it to White House, will be important to watch out for.

Kamala Harris was the first Black woman in the Senate in more than a decade when she was elected in 2016.

She is the first Vice Presidential candidate to have graduated from the predominantly historically black Howard University in DC Today at 55, the former first Black District Attorney of San Francisco and former Attorney General of California serves on several high-profile committees in the Senate, including the Intelligence Committee and the Judiciary Committee.

The former top prosecutor has advocated racial justice legislation strongly in wake of the George Floyd killing that led to nationwide #ICantBreathe protests which resonated across the globe.

She has supported proposals to overhaul the police system to address systemic racism and make lynchings a federal crime.

At a time when Trump is playing the Law and Order card emulating Richard Nixon, Harris’s record as a prosecutor will be of importance.

Harris grabbed much attention as she intensively interrogated Trump administration officials and nominees including Brett M. Kavanaugh during his Supreme Court confirmation hearing and Attorney General Jeff Sessions during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing streamed live on television.

As California’s junior senator opposing Kavanaugh’s nomination Harris said, “We have a system of justice that is symbolized by a statue of a woman holding scales. And she wears a blindfold. Justice wears a blindfold because we have said in the United States of America, under our judicial system, justice should be blind to a person’s status. We have said that in our system of justice, justice should be blind to how much money someone has, to what you look like or who you love, to who your parents are and the language they speak. And every Supreme Court Justice must understand and uphold that ideal. And sir, should those cases come before you, Judge Kavanaugh, I am concerned whether you would treat every American equally or instead show allegiance to the political party and the conservative agenda that has shaped and built your career. I am concerned your loyalty would be to the President who appointed you and not to the Constitution of the United States.”

The job just got much tougher for Donald Trump’s Vice Presidential candidate Mike Pence to defend the President on issues of sexism, racism, law and policing as he gears up to face Kamala Harris in debates leading up to the November polls.

For now, while Harris’s presidential dream that she announced on Martin Luther King’s birthday in 2019 may have to wait for some time. But history has been made.

Shirley Chisholm, the New York congresswoman who became the first woman to seek the Democratic Party’s nomination for president said in 1972, “I want history to remember me not as the first Black woman to run for the presidency, but as a Black woman who lived in the 20th century and dared to be herself. I want to be remembered as a catalyst for change in America.”

That change paved the way today for another milestone in American history.

Also Read: Biden's notes: Do not hold grudges against Kamala Harris

Last Updated : Aug 13, 2020, 6:09 AM IST

TAGGED:

Kamala HarrisSouth Asian AmericanDemocraticUS presidential electionsSmita Sharma

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