Just before midday Saturday US time, Kamala Harris, whose grandfather walked the streets of Tamil Nadu, moved from the margins and sidebars of the texts of history to become the first woman elected as vice president of the United States of America. Now, she will officially walk the corridors of power in Washington and the world as a black and Indian woman, a breath away from the most powerful office on Earth.
For nearly two-and-a-half centuries, America has been administered by men. Harris’s historic election as vice president is an achievement, with an impact that will transcend our time. This is a moment we all deserve to note.
Harris is today the shining spearhead of a struggle for equality and opportunity for women, for people of color, and for ethnic minorities, certain to be an inspiration to millions of young people around the world who will see themselves in her.
She rides on the shoulders of brave icons who struggled to pave the way like Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, Rosa Parks, Eleanor Roosevelt, Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton. The latter's previous two runs at the presidency, first as a major contender to Barack Obama for the nomination of the Democratic party, and then as the nominee of the party, garnered her the recognition as a female pathfinder and blazed the trail that Harris rode to her nomination and election.
Clinton recognised how difficult the glass ceiling was to crack, consoling her followers in 2008 that each of their votes for her in the failed quest for the nomination represented a crack on the glass. When she actually cracked the ceiling and was nominated, it came crashing down on her and women’s hopes of cracking the even higher ceiling of real presidential power. Now, it is Harris who stands on the pieces of that glass ceiling, making her the first woman, the first black, the first Indian, and the first person of Caribbean origin to be elected to hold the vice presidency of the United States.
“Tonight, I reflect on their struggle, their determination, and the strength of their vision…and I stand on their shoulders,” said Harris in her victory speech preceding Biden’s in Delaware Saturday night, reflecting on the 19th Amendment and Voting Rights Act. “While I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last.”
“I am in tears,” said Carmen Washington of Chicago, a descendant of slaves. “I can’t put into words what it means. I am proud, proud, proud. Halleluja!” Too overcome with emotion to say more.
“It is a proud and historic moment for all Indians around the world to have the first VP of the US of Indian descent,” said Eswar Chukaluri from Hyderabad. “It restores the reputation of the US as the land of opportunity for anyone irrespective of where they come from, the color of their skin, their gender.”
“What can I say, she is our girl,” said Richard Jackson from Kingston, Jamaica. “We are just beaming with pride.”
“What that means for the immigrant community is indescribable. It’s a gateway for little girls of color or of mixed heritage to know that anything is possible despite the limitations society often imparts upon us,” said Tahy-Z, a Jamaican immigrant in Miami. “It reinforces what we’ve been as taught as children, that character matters, equality matters, and inclusivity must be at the forefront of who we are as the human race.
“Having Kamala Harris as vice-president-elect reinforces that women belong at the table, that people of color belong at the table, and that boundaries are meant to be broken,” she said.
And there was also an impact on white Americans.
“It will help create a nice balance against the somewhat prevailing notion that old white men are the only ones capable of effectively being involved in politics,” said a young graduate student in Austin, TX, who did not want to be identified.
The 56-year-old California senator, as the highest-ranking woman ever elected to US public office, represents America’s return to the multiculturalism that has been the banner of the American melting pot that has been a beacon to the world until Trump shut many doors to immigration.
For more than 20 years Harris has been a bright light in the Democratic party in roles that took her from being San Francisco district attorney, to being the first black woman elected as California’s attorney general and the second black woman elected to the US Senate in history.
The daughter of a Jamaican father and a political activist Indian mother, she wrote in her memoir about being inspired after hearing the story of Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman who run a national campaign for president in 1971. “Talk about strength!” she wrote. “Don’t let anybody tell you you are. You tell them who you are,” wrote Harris of the advice she received from her mother who immigrated to the United States alone at the age of 19, breaking traditions and moving to Berkeley to pursue a doctorate in endocrinology.
Now, the world will be looking at Harris to tell them what a person can do to, how a woman can change the world with ideas, leadership, and dedication. As it happens with trailblazers, for generations to come young people will be looking at her and examining her values and meaning, looking for inspiration and motivation to live by. “Yes, sister, sometimes we may be the only one that looks like us walking in that room,” Harris told a pre-election black audience in Fort Worth, Texas. “But the thing we all know is we never walk in those rooms alone — we are all in that room together.”
It is not every day that we live through a global transformation tied to an extraordinary person. To be where she is, Harris has proven to be an extraordinary woman whose role as vice president of the United States is sure to change how women, people of color, and those of Indian ancestry are perceived in the United States and the world.
Biden, 78, selected Harris as his running mate fully aware that his age granted her the added potential that she would be the likely inheritor of the mantle of power that has been in the hands of, primarily, white men since the inception of the nation.
The significance of the moment is breathtaking.
Biden and Harris will be sworn in as president and vice president of the United States at noon on January 20, 2021.
