Behind the Scenes of the Headlines Kamala Harris is Making: 3 Things to Consider
- bhavyasands
- Aug 24, 2020
- 2 min read
Kamala Devi Harris made history a few days ago, being the first Black and Indian American woman (parented by a Jamaican father and an Indian mother), on a major party ticket in the presidential elections of the United States. While her selection as the Democratic nominee for Vice President and Joe Biden’s running mate is rightly seen as ‘pathbreaking’ in the United States, it has also generated pride and discussion in India -- where her mother grew up and which Harris visited frequently as a child. The seemingly historical political move is being regarded as the flagbearer of a new era for women of colour in the United States -- a notion that has been tough to navigate in Trump’s America. Here are a few things to consider about Harris, India, and what she can mean for the intersection of race and gender she stands representative of:
1. “Harris likes India. But that doesn’t mean she gives a free pass to everything that India does.”
This is what Harris’s uncle, Gopala Balachandran had to say to Hindustan Times, about her stance on India. In October 2019, two months after India revoked the autonomy of Kashmir, Harris had a warning for New Delhi: “We are watching.”
2. Soft Power Boon?
Harris may play a greater role on other issues important to Indians and South Asians. When the Trump administration suspended visas for highly skilled immigrants, most of which go to South Asians, Harris “confronted Trump’s nativism…introducing legislation to remove national caps on H-1B visas that lead to lengthy delays for Indian immigrants seeking green cards.”
3. Circumventing Merit: Diverting the Media Narrative
As this piece in Feminism in India aptly puts: “...faced some of the most trenchant opposition not based on their merit, but on everything else. How dare she have dated so many men so openly and appeared happy in glamorous clothes?! How dare she have been the temptress in an ‘extra-marital’ situation of a poor famous man? See, relationships involve sleeping with someone, so net net, she slept her way to the top. Ahoy!” Hence, the need is to debate her many problematic or praise-worthy policies and beliefs, not the validity of her womanhood.
The worlds that Harris seems to straddle are varied, a junior senator from California and former attorney-general of America’s richest state, daughter of immigrants, and a woman of colour in power. She is on the way towards representing many facets of the American Dream, whether or not she can truly make America Great Again remains to be seen.
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