Enter Kamala Harris, 29 years after the Beijing UN Women’s conference!
By Janet Karim
When day comes, we step out of the shade aflame and unafraid. The new dawn blooms as we free it. For there is always light. If only we’re brave enough to see it. If only we’re brave enough to be it. – Amanda Gorman, “The Hill We Climb,” the poem shedelivered at US President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s Inaugural ceremony, January 20, 2021
“This is America’s day. This is democracy’s day. A day of history and hope. Of renewal and resolve…” — US President Joseph R. Biden Jr. speech at his Inaugural ceremony, January 20, 2021
This is an election year in America and the past few weeks have been a frenzy of activities. First incumbent President Joe Biden, in the eyes of his followers and the media (pro and anti) , flunked his first debate against former President Donald Trump. Then last week, Trump survived an assassination attempt (scraped ear that requires a 1×2 inch bandage, he will likely wear through to Election Day in November). Then on Sunday (7.21.24) President Biden, following the chorus of supporters calling for him to abandon his election bid to the highest office in the world, announced that he was dropping out of the elections. Allowing this information to sink, globally, President Biden came back 20 minutes later to announce that he is appointing Vice President Kamala Harris and endorsing her. This meant that all the delegates, staff, and monies he had thus far amassed in the campaign.
Overnight, the entire leadership of the Democratic Party (DNC) not only fell in line to endorse the Vice President, becoming the presumptive nominee on the Democratic Party ticket, they (in the same breath hailed President Biden as a hero, patriot, and one who thinks about country rather than himself and personal political ambitions. On the other side, former President Trump said that VP Harris does not measure to the position of President of the US, other members of his Republican Party (RNC) accused the VP of using the race card to get in positions she has held, using the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) law to get there. As DEI efforts have become a lightning rod for the American right wing, Republicans are echoing that narrative and claiming that Harris is a “DEI” candidate, ignoring her track record as a district attorney, California attorney general, U.S. senator and vice president, and now presidential candidate.
These can rightly be labeled as “lies for what they are: an attempt to undermine a powerful woman’s decades of public service because of her gender, her ethnic background and her skin color,” said Nina Jankowicz, an expert on disinformation and democratization in an article this week. She acknowledges that while a Harris administration won’t end the online abuse of women overnight, “but it will deflate its perceived power. Online misogynists are loud and ugly, but they are outnumbered, and they can’t stop progress.”
In his speech in bidding farewell as a candidate to the American people, President Biden said “nothing can come in the way of saving democracy… I revere this office (of the US president) but I love my country more.”
This article is not aiming to debunk the Trump and RNC position, but to speak on the numerous black women before her, and crown it with the grander than life that is Kamala Harris, very likely to be the next, first woman (who happens to be black and Indian) President of the US. There are some that may not want this reality, speaking about her as not measuring up to the presidential calls of duty. There have been numerous black women, who’s contributions in these United States should leave your collective mouths gaping wide open. The following is a hugely small list and either titles or achievements by African American women, against a backdrop of hardships, mud-slinging, and obstructions.
1. Harriet Tubman – leader of the Underground Railroad that helped transport slaves from the south to the north.
2. Sojourner Truth – outspoken critic of slavery; helped secure food and clothing donations for black soldiers. She was a leading voice for women’s right to vote.
3. Ida B. Wells – journalist, abolitionist, and feminist; wrote fearlessly about lynching of black people. Founded the National Association of Colored Women’s Club.
4. Rosa Parks, Ruby Bridges civil rights activists that fed into Martin Luther King leading African Americans demands for equality in the US.
5. Coretta Scott King — activist and wife of civil rights leader MLK.
6. Oprah and Maya Angelou, Lorraine Hansberry, Amanda Goman, Nikki Giovanni are among the literary and entertainment giants.
7. The three hidden women of effort to the moon – Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Dorothy Vaughn), Mae Jemison, engineer and physician and NASA astronaut, first black woman to travel to space; Marie Maynard Daly, first African American woman to receive a doctorate in chemistry – found correlation between high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
8. Shirley Chisolm – first African American woman in congress; Carol Morseley Baun – first African American woman in congress and first American woman to seek major party’s nomination for president), (Kamala is second black woman on the senate floor); Barbara Jordan – congresswoman and gifted public speaker on civil rights and racial equality, she is noted for participation in impeachment of former President Richard Nixon.
9. Serena William – tennis sports star.
10. Musicians – Mahalia Jackson, Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross, Tina Turner, Whitney Houston, Jennifer Hudson, Gladys Knight, Beyonce,
11. Actresses – Lena, Horne, Kerry Washington, Pam Grier, Halle Berry, Angela Bassett, Diahann Carroll, Whoopie Goldberg, Ruby Dee, Phylicia Rashard, Cicely Tyson, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer.
12. Michelle Obama – an author and former First Lady, an eloquent orator; created a national garden and food and nutrition agenda – moved fast foods and sugary foods from schools.
13. Katenji Brown Jackson – first black justice on the US Supreme Court.
14. Kamala Harris – as former first lady Michelle Obama said, “we (African American women) are standing on the shoulders of giants” like the many activists before them. But Kamala is a different package, one her critics are finding difficult to challenge or say anything that diminishes her.
VP Harris has in a 20-year career path, held five elected and notable very distinct positions as follows:
1. San Francisco district attorney (2004-2011).
2. California attorney general (2011-2017). During this time, she worked with a young Delaware attorney general by name of Beau Biden (son of then Vice President Joe Biden).
3. In 2017 made history by being elected as California senator – becoming the second African American woman to acquire such a seat. During her questioning of Bill Barr and Brett Cavanaugh, many eyes were on fellow senator Corey Booker, who seemed to be in awe of the Senator’s questioning manner.
4. Harris entered the Hall of Historic fame when chosen as Biden’s running mate, became the first woman (black, white, Asian) to be elected US Vice President. Any time President Biden is outside the country, VP Kamala Harris becomes Acting President. This is no small feat – it takes skill, courage, strength, and wisdom. (Harris has exhibited them all with great aplomb). In the Biden/Harris team these past three years, there are many similarities of the Obama/Biden years: it is pure joy to watch the two pairs of dynamic duos. So far, groups of people (black women, black men, white women, white men, Asian women) are meeting and raising money for the campaign, over $125 million raised thus far; over 100,000 volunteers and importantly, there have been 38,500 new voters registering to vote in November.
5. Mode Presidential campaign 2024 – On Day three since her nomination, it seems like a whole year: Millions of dollars raised and pledged, whole Democratic leaders’ team on board – “riding with Biden: style – with endorsements, speeches delivered that are throwing the opposition some heavy punches. AND hey how is that “Not Home” sign rubbing it in as Israeli PM Netanyahu addresses the Joint session of Congress? The VP was campaigning in Indiana.
The policies that VP Harris will follow as POTUS47, may be similar to Biden (POTUS46), but they will come in with the saucy punch of “This is Wo-Mahn, Madame President Kamala Harris speaking.” I am expecting truckloads of African American men and women, white men and women from the DNC, with a considerable number of white women and college educated white men from the RNC jumping ship to turn up at the ballot boxes to vote for Kamala Harris in 2024.
USA 2024 Elections are here! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hear me when I say: I’m riding with Kamala all the way!
