Kamala! + a Playlist
Words by: Maggie Laubscher | Music by: Abby Yemm
Photo credit: Kamala Harris Instagram account
This Presidents’ Day, we are celebrating hope and our country and looking forward. And women! Presidents’ Day is meant as a day of patriotic celebration. So today, we are celebrating the woman who has come closest to holding the office of American President: VP Kamala Harris.
As a First, Only, Different, Kamala is referred to differently from different people. She is Black through her dad, who was born in Jamaica. She is Indian through her mom, who was born in British India. She is South Asian since India is a part of South Asia. And she is American because she was born in Oakland, California.
Kamala initially ran for president, but she suspended her campaign in Dec 2019. She eventually joined Biden’s campaign, and she is now the 49th and current vice president of the United States.
The U.S. senator from California is the first Indian woman and second Black woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate. She is the first woman who served as San Francisco District Attorney. She is the first Black vice president. She is the first Asian vice president. And she is the first female vice president.
Her list of firsts is lengthy and we’re excited to watch as it grows even longer. But we are resisting putting her on a pedestal. Because anyone on a pedestal must fall from it, and we don’t need that mess. Her career has included good and some not-great moments. Let’s dive in.
As attorney general, Kamala tackled a backlog of rape kits and instituted implicit-bias training for police officers. The good also includes her three years in the Senate. The Instagram account @soyouwanttotalkabout and @nowsimplified compiled a helpful which Harris introduced or co-sponsored legislation to:
Provide tax cuts for the middle class
Address the high cost of rent
Raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour
Make higher education tuition-free for the majority of Americans
Reform the cash bail system
Protect rights of refugees and immigrants
Expand access to healthcare through Medicare for All
Reform the criminal justice system - Harris authored the Justice in Policing Act after the death of George Floyd
Another good moment: in 2018, Kamala had a heated discussion with Brett Kavanaugh, who is now an associate justice of the Supreme Court. During the discussion, she asked him: ‘Can you think of any laws that give the government the power to make decisions about the male body?’ Mic drop.
And then there are some not-great moments. Kamala fought to uphold wrongful convictions that came from prosecutors blocking evidence and suppressing information -- prosecutors like her. Her stance on the death penalty is also messy, with her both renouncing it and also supporting it at different moments in her career. She refused to take a position on an initiative that would have lessened low-level felonies -- like those for minor drug charges.
Beyond the good and bad, there are also lots of false myths about Kamala:
Myths + Truths
Image credit: Kamala Harris Instagram account
THE MYTH: Kamala is just like Rachel Dolezal: both women are not Black and pretend to be. This meme went viral.
THE TRUTH: Kamala is half-Black through her dad, who is Jamaican. Benjamin Decker tracked the spread of this viral falsity -- it’s a fascinating read.
THE MYTH: Kamala switches between calling herself Indian-American and Black-American to benefit her politics. Candace Owens, a right-wing commentator, tweeted in 2020, ‘I am so excited that we get to watch Kamala Harris, who swore into congress as an ‘Indian-American,’ now play the ‘I’m a black woman’ card all the way until November.’
THE TRUTH: Harris is both Indian-American (from her mom) and Black-American (from her dad). As far back as we could find quotes, she has referred to herself this way: as both Black and Indian (or South Asian, since India is part of South Asia). One possible root of the myth is that 2016 news headlines often focused on Kamala’s Indian background because she was the first Indian woman elected to a Senate seat in 2016.
THE MYTH: Kamala is not an American and therefore is ineligible to run for president. At one point, Donald Trump Jr. amplified this false claim when he shared a tweet that read, ‘Kamala Harris is not an American Black. She is half Indian and half Jamaican.’
THE TRUTH: Kamala was born in Oakland, CA, USA, to two immigrant parents. She is half-Indian because her mom was born in British India and immigrated to the U.S. for graduate school when she was 19 years old. She is half-Jamaican because her dad was born in Jamaica and immigrated to the U.S. for graduate school. Kamala was raised in the United States until her family moved to Montreal, Canada for high school.
THE MYTH: Kamala refused to be sworn into the Senate with a Bible.
THE TRUTH: Video footage shows Kamala swearing in with a Bible. In the video, you can see the bible starting around the 55-second mark, and President Joe Biden says to Kamala, ‘Put your left hand on the bible and raise your right.’ Kamala then does so.
So here we are! And you know what? We stand by our feeling of hope. We stand by Kamala. She has brought hope and patriotism to us, following a time of intense negativity and horror during the Trump presidency. We do not require or expect Kamala to be a flawless dream human sitting on a pedestal -- that is a world of pretend. She is a human and a leader and incredibly intelligent. We are excited to see the next four years unfold.
Cheers to Kamala, the first Black, Indian and South Asian American vice president ever. And happy Presidents’ Day, Nellies!
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