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“My mother often told me: ‘Kamala, you could be the first to achieve many things. Make sure you’re not the last. ‘
Those are the words that were etched in the memory of Kamala harris, the first woman elected as vice president of the United States by Democrat Joe Biden in the United States, and which he uses as a mantra for his political life.
Harris She is a pioneer and landmark woman in the United States. During her life as a public servant there are two appointments in her career that are transcendental for her figure as a politician.
In 2011, for example, it became the first woman, and the first African-American, to head the California Attorney General’s Office. Then, in 2016, she was elected as the second African woman to hold a Senate seat.
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Now, Harris, 55, is the first African-American (and of Asian descent) to hold the second-highest office in the country: the vice presidency.
The achievements of Harris, who grew up in Oakland, in progressive California in the 1960s, are no small feats in a country like the United States, which is currently experiencing a deep social crisis over systematic violence against minorities.
In fact, that wound is still fresh in the heart of American society, after the wave of protests that occurred after the death of the African-American George Floyd at the hands of a white cop in Minneapolis last May.
Therefore, be the Biden’s vice-presidential formula, 77, takes on a deep symbolic and political meaning. Harris’s name brings Democrats closer to the young vote and draws in the African-American community, which is crying out for change in the country.
“They (the Democrats) are on the right side of history. Biden will be remembered forever as the president who had the first African-American woman as vice president. This will encourage many young voters to join the Democratic Party because it will make them look like a more inclusive party than the Republican Party, ”he told TIME Sharon Austin, Professor of Political Science at the University of Florida.
If Biden wins, he will be remembered forever as the president who had the first African-American woman as vice president.
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Harris has not gone unnoticed in a country trying to leave behind its legacy of racial profiling.
A profit?
The nomination of Harris, the daughter of a Jamaican economist and an Indian cancer researcher, was from the beginning a nod to immigrants, minorities and the middle class.
In fact, it is the first time in almost 40 years that someone has not been selected from the great universities of the country’s elite. She studied at Howard University, founded in Washington to host African-American students.
And Biden’s personality fell like a balm in the middle of a presidential race marked by two candidates over 70 years old (Trump is 74), which for the new generations can be boring.
Precisely, Harris has always been portrayed by the international media as a fresh, young, progressive woman with a great ability to speak. So, What does this African-American add to the Democratic candidate?
(See here: Videos of George Floyd’s murder recorded by former police officers revealed)
“Adding an ‘Afro’ Woman Will Satisfy Many African American Democratic Women”Added Professor Austin.
According to analysts, the African-American vote was more important in this election than in the rest of the years, precisely because of the context of the marches against racism that emerged in the country after Floyd’s death.
Joe Biden’s presidential campaign needed to bring more enthusiasm among Democratic voters, especially Afros
“They are 13 percent of the population, about a fifth or a quarter of Democratic voters,” Andra Gillespie, a professor in the Department of Political Science at Emory University, told EFE, adding that, in the case of Afro women, only 4 percent voted for Trump in 2016.
Faced with these significant figures, If Biden had not chosen a person like Harris, his decision would have discouraged the vote of these communities.
For this reason, the nomination had a clear purpose: “This has a political message, which attempts to recognize the problem and the social injustice that exists in the United States. There is a recognition of racism as a systematic problem to be confronted in the White House“Karol Solís, a candidate for a doctorate in Political Science at Florida International University, told this newspaper.
(Plus: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s promise at the start of their campaign)
For Solís, Harris also put gender issues at the heart of the debate, as the former prosecutor has been described as a progressive woman. “There are two things that unite the Black Live Matters movement like #MeToo and that is that, in essence, they are two movements that talk about the protection of human rights,” Solís said.
The critics
One of the points in favor was when he served as a prosecutor. From South Carolina to Michigan, African-American and progressive voters lamented his reputation for toughness.
They particularly question his aggressive prosecution of African-American men – some of whom were later exonerated – for serious crimes. Harris responded to those criticisms by describing herself as a progressive prosecutor who worked to balance the balance between those who must submit to the law and those who need justice.
“Some, especially among young African Americans, see it as part of the problem, not the solution”Said David Barker, professor of political science at the American University in Washington.
However, Gillespie cautioned that this factor works in his favor, because African-American candidates have traditionally been labeled under the theory that they are “softer.”
(Of interest: Donald Trump’s criticism against Kamala Harris)
The Donald Trump campaign from the beginning put all its battery to criticize it. Part of the Republicans use terms such as “disgusting woman” to refer to her, a qualifier that the same president used against Hillary Clinton in the 2016 campaign.
Trump also referred to Harris as a “radical leftist” and even suggested that she cannot be elected because she did not meet legal requirements.
Trump alluded to a column by Chapman University Law Professor John Eastman, published in ‘Newsweek’, who noted that Harris was not eligible for the position, as she was not a “natural citizen,” since her parents were not naturalized US citizens. at the time of their birth.
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The former prosecutor has mentioned that in her life she tries to pay tribute to her mother’s words: make sure she is not the last African-American to make history in the country.
CARLOS J. REYES *
International Writing
TIME
* With agencies
