A South-Asian Perspective of What Kamala Harris Represents

I want to address the fact that this article is based on my personal experiences as a South-Asian woman. It in no way represents all of us or our experiences.

What Kamala Harris Represents

Saturday, November 7, was the day I discovered that Kamala Harris became the Vice President  (VP)-elect of America. The anticipation surrounding the 2020 election results had already taken a mental toll on me, but the relief and joy I felt when they were announced was worth the wait. Harris is Indian, Black, and a woman. I had never seen such representation or felt so much hope. In that moment, I knew young South Asian girls everywhere could now say, “The VP-elect of a world power is a brown woman.” This is a very powerful statement for people who constantly have their right to an education questioned. It may seem like these words cannot lead to much external change, but they will forever serve as a reminder to women of their right to equality.    

I feel grateful even when I look at this event solely from the eyes of a Canadian woman. Many people have told me that I have no right to fight for equality in Canada because it has already been achieved. I have also seen many women shut down and told that they are “liberal feminists with an agenda” or “Social Justice Warriors” when they were simply discussing equality. I strongly disagree with these simplistic judgments. The fact that this is the first time a woman has been elected as VP in America is astonishing and sad. It proves that women still have a lot to fight for, and that we just witnessed history being made.

Kamala Harris becoming VP-elect is a memorable moment for the feminist movement. In 1903, Marie Curie became the first woman to be granted the Nobel prize. Women received the right to vote in 1920, a time not so distant from the present. In 1983, Sally Ride became the first woman to go to space. Congress passed the Violence Against Women Act in 1994. And in 2007, Nancy Pelosi became the first female speaker of the US House of Representatives.  Now, America has a woman of color as their Vice-President elect. Women everywhere are celebrating. This is evidence that feminism is still going strong, and will not stop until women everywhere have equality.    

Reading about KHarris and her family’s educational history means a lot to me. Her sister is a lawyer that became one of the nation’s youngest law school deans, her mother was a reputable breast cancer researcher, and her father was a professor at Stanford. Even if this was only the case because her family came from privilege that many South-Asian people are not born with, it makes me dream of a future where people who look like me increasingly fight for their rights and their beliefs, a future where more South-Asian people try to educate and stand up for themselves, and a future where more brown women refuse to tolerate inequality within a patriarchal culture.  

Criticism and Concerns

Many people are critical of Harris achieving the position of VP-elect, and rightfully so. She is someone who has done troubling and questionable things throughout her career. Harris appealed against a judge ruling the death penalty as unconstitutional when she was attorney general. S he chose not to support efforts to ensure that incidents of deadly police force in California go through independent investigations. To add insult to injury, she supports legalizing marijuana at a national level, yet has overseen over 1,900 marijuana convictions.  

Evidence suggests that Harris may not be the best person to hold this position in government. However, I doubt that America can do much better. Every American leader to date has supported with actions and policies that are inherently unjust. There is not one American leader that we can claim solely wanted the betterment of their nation. George W. Bush officially began the Iraq war, which arguably harmed both Americans and the Iraqi people. Bill Clinton expanded the death penalty and law enforcement in 1993, and years later he changed his stance, much like someone simply trying to please voters of a different time. These are just two recent examples of the American struggle for a supportive leader.

Donald Trump is the current president of the United States, and it is difficult to imagine that Kamala Harris could possibly do more harm as vice-president than Trump has caused in the past four years. Even if we choose to ignore Trump’s actions, his words of hatred towards people of almost every marginalized community speak loud enough. The American world power, for the most part, has not shown that they want a leader that solely does good or acts justly for their country and their people. Knowing this, Harris does not scare me more than any other American leader has. She is simply getting more hate than previous politicians because of her gender and her race. People have even reached a point of claiming that feminists want equality in the form of a female tyrant, with Harris as an example.

The way I see it, Harris is the start of a new era of American leadership. She may not be the perfect choice, but Harris’ receiving of this position is a good thing and points towards a brighter future. She has opened doors for people just a little better than her, and they will open doors for the people we truly want in power. That is something worth celebrating. Perhaps America will someday see leaders that truly try their best and who aim solely to do good for their nation.

The right wing could be correct in saying that Harris’s nomination is simply tokenism at its best and a ploy to get more votes. I genuinely fear this possibility, as it suggests that we may just get another two decades of a lack of diversity in both gender and race. Even so, I try to remember that change starts with one person. This is one door open and another one just waiting. The future leaders of the West will increasingly be people from marginalized communities or people who are supportive allies. Furthermore, Kamala Harris is more than qualified for the position of vice-president, so even if her becoming VP-elect is a result of tokenism, she has worked tirelessly to attain this position and I can confidently say that she deserves this position as much as any previous American vice-president.