CELEBRATING KICK-ASS WOMEN: KAMALA HARRIS

from StitchLife Magazine: October 2020

FLOSSTUBE DIRECTORY

Kamala + Momala = VP?

photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

People who know her best, admit there are two sides to Kamala Harris, the first African-American, Asian-American woman to be nominated as vice president for a major political party.

The first side of Kamala Harris is the one that many people already know: the hard-driving lawyer, Senator from California, and former California Attorney General.

Then there’s the other side that we’re learning so much about as she campaigns with Joe Biden: Momala, the auntie, stepmother, sister, wife, and friend who collects Chuck Taylors and loves to laugh.

Since 2020 feels like it’s lasted for years and years, it can be surprising to be reminded that Ms. Harris has only been in the Senate since 2016. She’s been incredibly high-profile during

written by Dana L Costa

that time: including her questioning of former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions in 2017 and then-SCOTUS nominee Brett Kavanaugh in 2018. Then, in 2019, she announced her own bid for the Democratic nomination for President. The date of her announcement that year—January 28—was not chosen at random; it was Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and was an obvious nod to the civil rights movement.

The path to Ms. Harris’ glass ceiling shattering VP nomination has celebrated her bi-racial heritage.

Born in Oakland, CA in 1964 to a Jamaican father, Donald Harris, and Indian mother, Shyamala Gopalan, Ms. Harris grew up in a lower-middle-class, predominantly black neighborhood. For Ms. Harris, it was a normal childhood despite her parents’ divorce when she was 7 years old. She and her younger sis-

ter, Maya, were part of the school integration bussing program, and traveled each school day from her neighborhood to a school in a “prosperous white district.”

Regardless of the elementary school she attended, Ms. Harris didn’t shed her heritage. As a child, she went to a Baptist church and a Hindu temple as a way to understand both parts of her background, and even visited her grandparents in India (both of her maternal grandparents were involved in politics and women’s rights in India).

When her mother got a job teaching at McGill University in Montreal, Shyamala relocated her girls to Canada, where they attended middle and high school.

In her autobiography, Ms. Harris wrote, “My mother understood very well that she was raising two black daughters, and she was determined to make sure we would grow into confident, proud black women.”

Continuing her mother’s mission to embrace her black roots, Ms. Harris attended the prestigious Howard University in Washington, D.C. where she studied political science and economics, and joined the elite Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. She returned to California after college to attend law school at the University of California, living with her younger sister and helping potty train her niece. Recalling the time, Ms. Harris said, “I’m dealing with this brutal stuff, dog-eat-dog in school, and then I would come home and we would all stand by the toilet and wave bye to a piece of shit.”

Kamala has said that the time helping Maya with her daughter put some of the challenges of politics in perspective. And also gives a little insight on her ability to compartmentalize the different sides of her life. The Kamala vs. the Momala.

In 1990, after passing the California bar, Ms. Harris surprised her family by announcing she wanted to become a prosecutor, rather than pursuing a more lucrative specialty. Her reasoning: she wanted to fix the system from the inside.

“You may be the first, but make sure you’re not the last.”

- Shyamala Gopalan, late mother of Kamala Harris

As an assistant district attorney for Alameda port of police unions when she ran for office County (CA), Ms. Harris focused on the sex in the future. crimes unit and when she shifted to the San Francisco DA’s office, Ms. Harris was instru- But she did have the support of many others mental in reforming teenage prostitution during her 2010 bid for the California attorney laws, working with law enforcement to treat general seat…just barely. On election night, them as victims rather than criminal sex her opponent, Steve Cooley, was declared the workers. winner by the San Francisco Chronicle—and Ms. Harris’ rise from assistant DA to Califor- three weeks after election day that Ms. Harris’ nia’s Attorney General was not an easy path. victory was sealed—by less than 1 percentage She was criticized for dating the much-older point. Willie Brown, who Not everyone was enamored with Ms. Harris that decision, Ms. Harris didn’t have the suphe even made a victory speech. It wasn’t until was an influential Ms. Harris was politician in Cal- a two-term atifornia and was torney general elected mayor of and is probably San Francisco in best known out1995. While the side the state as two split soon the person who after his election, helped pursue critics still, to this predatory mortday, question gage lenders to Ms. Harris’ mo- help the millions tives and political of Americans ambition, and who lost their whether she uses homes during personal relation- the housing crisis ships to progress in 2008. To many, professionally. A common problem photo: Kelsey Kremer/Des Moines Register Ms. Harris rolled the dice when with smart, successful women who have she rejected the $4 billion settlement for their sights set on leadership positions. California homeowners…only to negotiate a $20 billion settlement several months later. Ms. Harris’ personal connections did not start While she was applauded for her shrewd or stop with Willie Brown—and she’s main- negotiating skills, she was also criticized for tained strong professional relationships with declining to prosecute OneWest Bank or its other political figures, including former Pres- then-CEO Steve Mnuchin for “widespread ident Barack Obama and California Governor misconduct” when foreclosing homes. If that Gavin Newsome. name sounds familiar, it should. Mr. Mnuchin during her pre-senatorial time in California Ms. Harris’ qualifications for the role of vice politics. She has been criticized for her shift- president go beyond her legal expertise and ing stances on healthcare and the death her time as senator, though as a senator she penalty and was publicly lambasted for her has had a seat on many influential commitdecision not to seek the death penalty in the tees, including the Intelligence Committee, fatal shooting of a San Francisco police offi- where she has flexed her intellect and never cer in 2004. In fact, for at least a decade after shied from a heated discussion. is currently Secretary of the Treasury.

During her year campaigning for the presidency, Ms. Harris showed her two sides to primary voters. While in Iowa before the caucuses there, Ms. Harris proudly wore her Chucks while sitting casually with constituents, but she also put on her obligatory pantsuit and sensible pumps at official campaign speeches and debates. But even today, literally, as I write this, Ms. Harris is fighting for her seat in the room; Peggy Noonan, a glass ceiling shatter-er herself, published an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal claimed Ms. Harris was not taking the election seriously because she was dancing at a campaign event in Florida. That Ms. Harris is too ambitious to be “just” the vice president. That wearing Chuck Taylors or Timberland boots isn’t appropriate. That she laughs too much or sits wrong or, or, or. Regardless of her bona fides, Ms. Harris will always be held to a dif-

Learn more about Kamala Harris

ferent standard because she is not an old, white man in politics.

But her family, her sister, brother-in-law, and niece, as well as her husband of six years, Doug Emhoff, and his two children, are her biggest cheerleaders and Ms. Harris calls them her “endless source of love and pure joy.”

Ms. Harris also has a strong online following, known as the KHive, a nod to Beyonce’s BeyHive, and doesn’t publicly let the haters rattle her. She continues to be herself, which is someone who has proved to fight for the rule of law, U.S. homeowners, people of color, the right of safe, affordable healthcare, and so much more.

And those Chuck Taylors!

Sources: Wikipedia.org; The Next In Line; RollingStone. com; WashingtonPost.com; senate.gov, refinery29.com; DesMoinesRegister.com: Politico.com

The Next in Line podcast hosted by Joy Reid (2020) Kamala Harris: Rooted in Justice by Nikki Grimes & Laura Freeman (2020) Kamala Harris: A Biography by University Press (2020) The Truths We Hold: An American Journey by Kamala Harris (2020) What are we learning about Kamala Harris? Rolling Stone (January 29, 2019)