Kamala Harris: The First Black Woman Vice-President
When I was growing up, I shied away from anything politics related. I didn't want to join a race for class president, a homecoming court nomination, or even be the treasurer for a field trip. In retrospect, I believed that politics wasn't a space for a timid Black girl like me. I saw runs for class president as popularity contests and didn't view the oval office any differently. And when I looked at the oval office, I never saw myself reflected in who ran this country.
It wasn't until I got to college that I started to pay attention to the Black women I saw in US political positions. I remember sitting in one of my African American studies classes and learning about Shirley Chisolm. Shirley Chisolm was the first woman to run for the Democratic nomination for president. She was also the first African American candidate for a major party's nomination in 1972. Chisolm had already become the first Black woman elected into Congress in 1968 and served until 1983. Chisolm had to enter into spaces where no one looked like her, whether it meant being Black or being a woman, yet she did so anyway. She blazed a path of her own that led to other opportunities for people that looked like her and identified in the same way.
Photo courtesy of Elle Magazine
For the first time in this country's history, a Black woman is being sworn into the White House as the Vice President of the United States of America. This achievement is one that has taken a long time to actualize. It signals a shift in power in this country where women and people of color are pushing open doors that were once closed to us. Kamala Harris isn't a stranger to being the first to break through glass ceilings. She was the first Black woman to be elected district attorney in California and the second Black woman, and the first South Asian American woman to serve in the senate. Kamala is also the first Vice President in history to have attended a historically Black university, Howard in Washington DC.
Although Kamala has faced scrutiny for her political career related to criminal justice stances, she still serves as a beacon of hope for so many watching. When I was a little girl, I wasn't taught about Shirley Chisolm or Eleanor Holmes Norton's significance in serving in Congress on behalf of DC natives. I didn't understand the impact of having people who look like you and believe in the same things in power positions within the country. I didn't see how getting involved politically mattered because I thought it was a white man's world, and Black girls wouldn't have significant seats at the table.
I know now that all my perceptions of the world were untrue. Not because systemic structures aren't in place to keep us out of spaces but because people like Maxine Waters, Stacey Abrams, and Kamala Harris exist. I've even begun learning more about my local political systems to get involved and start using my voice to advocate for the things I believe in. If Kamala does nothing else while in office, she will serve as an example as the highest-ranking woman in a government position; that Black girls and South Asian American girls and all girls can do the same thing. Her motto adopted from her mother is, "You may be the first, but make sure you're not the last."
