Reserved excitement surrounds naming of first Black South Asian woman on US presidential ticket
Egbert Gaye
Joe Biden- Kamala Harris was the original “dream ticket” that many Democrats envisioned early in the campaign to kick Donald Trump out of the white house.
Biden— the crotchety old white guy with occasional memory lapses who does not have much of a position on anything but the type of fella that conservative, middle of the road America can trust easily— and Harris the near perfect candidate with a perfected presidential profile, the ideal ideological centrist whose mercurial positions on issues such as health care, criminal justice and race relations render her Obamaesque .
In other words, Harris is exactly what Biden needs to defeat Donald Trump, who in spite of his vapid and dysfunctional presidency and the current state of crisis in the country is still capable of thrashing almost anyone the Democrats throw at him.
Suddenly with this 55-year-old woman of color, who answers to being Black and is especially proud of her south Asian heritage on the ticket, Biden’s 78 birthday party at the white house is now a distinct possibility.
And God obviously blessed him because he did outstandingly well in his choice of VP.
Deep down, we’ll know that Biden’s heart must have been with Gretchen Witmer the Michigan governor whose handling of the coronavirus, made her an overnight celebrity.
But in the extended moment of Black consciousness and empathy that swept over the US after Minnesota police officer Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd on a lazy Sunday afternoon on May 25, the former vice president knew that history would not forgive him if he didn’t choose a Black woman to stand at his side to build back better especially after Trump went and “made America great again.”
So after several months of seeking out the ideal candidate who will stand with him, loyal and supportive and help deliver his message of transformation to America— like he did for his old boss Obama— Biden went a step further by choosing to offer the country someone to be excited about, in Kamala Harris.
By now, like many across North America and around the world we know her story well and feel a special kinship because her mother Shyamala Gopalan Harris, a breast cancer scientist is of Tamil descent and her father, Donald Harris, a professor of economics at Stanford University is a Jamaican.
And we will not let the world forget that Harris spent much of teenage years here and was a student at Westmount High School while her mother worked at the Jewish General and taught McGill University.
She brings a lot of heft into her role as the first African American, Indian American and only the third woman to stand as a vice-presidential candidate.
Starting in 1990, when she was hired as a deputy district attorney in Alameda County, California, Harris worked her way up where to becoming attorney general of the state of California, the first woman of color.She served six years in that position then went on to become one of just 10 Blacks in the US Senate in 2016.
But while she stands ready to offer herself to the American people as the polar opposite to the current president, his questionable ethics and his unruly administration, Harris will have to answer for many of the questionable positions she took as a head persecutor.
Not the least of which, is her record of standing against calls for changes to a criminal justice system that has a long history of negatively impacting Blacks, other minorities and the poor.
Especially troubling was her fight to uphold wrongful convictions that were secured by unlawful and underhanded means by officers of the law.
The Action Center on Race and the Economy is a racial justice group that “provide research and communications infrastructure and strategic support for organizations working on campaigns to win structural change by directly taking on the financial elite that are responsible for pillaging communities of color, devastating working class communities, and harming our environment…”
In a recently released statement they added perspective to the Harris appointment:
“While we can acknowledge the historic nature of a Black woman being nominated Vice-President to the Democratic Party ticket, we know that the policy put forth by these candidates is what is most important,” said Maurice BP-Weeks, Co-Executive Director of ACRE. “Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will need to demonstrate that Black and Brown communities are a priority — and that they need our votes to win.
Still Harris and her supporters think that she will bring to the vice president’s office stability, clarity and open-mindedness to bring the U.S. out of this period of darkness.
oe Biden- Kamala Harris was the original “dream ticket” that many Democrats envisioned early in the campaign to kick Donald Trump out of the white house.
Biden— the crotchety old white guy with occasional memory lapses who does not have much of a position on anything but the type of fella that conservative, middle of the road America can trust easily— and Harris the near perfect candidate with a perfected presidential profile, the ideal ideological centrist whose mercurial positions on issues such as health care, criminal justice and race relations render her Obamaesque .
In other words, Harris is exactly what Biden needs to defeat Donald Trump, who in spite of his vapid and dysfunctional presidency and the current state of crisis in the country is still capable of thrashing almost anyone the Democrats throw at him.
Suddenly with this 55-year-old woman of color, who answers to being Black and is especially proud of her south Asian heritage on the ticket, Biden’s 78 birthday party at the white house is now a distinct possibility.
And God obviously blessed him because he did outstandingly well in his choice of VP.
Deep down, we’ll know that Biden’s heart must have been with Gretchen Witmer the Michigan governor whose handling of the coronavirus, made her an overnight celebrity.
But in the extended moment of Black consciousness and empathy that swept over the US after Minnesota police officer Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd on a lazy Sunday afternoon on May 25, the former vice president knew that history would not forgive him if he didn’t choose a Black woman to stand at his side to build back better especially after Trump went and “made America great again.”
So after several months of seeking out the ideal candidate who will stand with him, loyal and supportive and help deliver his message of transformation to America— like he did for his old boss Obama— Biden went a step further by choosing to offer the country someone to be excited about, in Kamala Harris.
By now, like many across North America and around the world we know her story well and feel a special kinship because her mother Shyamala Gopalan Harris, a breast cancer scientist is of Tamil descent and her father, Donald Harris, a professor of economics at Stanford University is a Jamaican.
And we will not let the world forget that Harris spent much of teenage years here and was a student at Westmount High School while her mother worked at the Jewish General and taught McGill University.
She brings a lot of heft into her role as the first African American, Indian American and only the third woman to stand as a vice-presidential candidate.
Starting in 1990, when she was hired as a deputy district attorney in Alameda County, California, Harris worked her way up where to becoming attorney general of the state of California, the first woman of color.She served six years in that position then went on to become one of just 10 Blacks in the US Senate in 2016.
But while she stands ready to offer herself to the American people as the polar opposite to the current president, his questionable ethics and his unruly administration, Harris will have to answer for many of the questionable positions she took as a head persecutor.
Not the least of which, is her record of standing against calls for changes to a criminal justice system that has a long history of negatively impacting Blacks, other minorities and the poor.
Especially troubling was her fight to uphold wrongful convictions that were secured by unlawful and underhanded means by officers of the law.
The Action Center on Race and the Economy is a racial justice group that “provide research and communications infrastructure and strategic support for organizations working on campaigns to win structural change by directly taking on the financial elite that are responsible for pillaging communities of color, devastating working class communities, and harming our environment…”
In a recently released statement they added perspective to the Harris appointment:
“While we can acknowledge the historic nature of a Black woman being nominated Vice-President to the Democratic Party ticket, we know that the policy put forth by these candidates is what is most important,” said Maurice BP-Weeks, Co-Executive Director of ACRE. “Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will need to demonstrate that Black and Brown communities are a priority — and that they need our votes to win.
Still Harris and her supporters think that she will bring to the vice president’s office stability, clarity and open-mindedness to bring the U.S. out of this period of darkness.
