Two days from now, on October 20, Kamala Harris will celebrate her 60th birthday. At present she is the most scrutinised woman on the planet, as she stands a chance to become the next President of the United States—not just the first woman, but the first woman of colour to hold that all-powerful office.
As the first black female Vice President, and before that the first female attorney general of California, and San Francisco District Attorney, the second woman and the first Asian-African representative of California in the US Senate. She is the highest-ranking female official in US history. Considering that racism and sexism is endemic in a surprisingly conservative country — going by the constant reports of police brutality against Blacks and the ongoing debate on abortion rights — her achievements are spectacular. Even so, she is called names like “childless cat lady” by opponents, talked down to and interrupted by snide TV anchors as the recent Fox TV interview shows. But Harris, despite the dancing memes and laughing photographs in the media, is made of granite, as women have to be in the macho world of US politics; but she also knows she is more than a candidate, she is a symbol of hope for millions of women around the world.
There are quite a few books about her out now, but her 2019 memoir, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey, is once again on the bestseller lists, and those who want to know who Kamala Harris is and what she stands for should read it.
In the book, she mentions an incident: as the celebrations for her swearing in as San Francisco district attorney were winding down, “a man came up to me with his two young daughters. ‘I brought them here today, so that they could see what someone who looked like them could grow up to do’.”
The celebrations she writes about, also show what Harris stands for: “Drummers drummed. A youth choir sang. One of my pastors gave a beautiful invocation. Chinese dragon dancers roamed the aisles. The San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus serenaded us all. It was multicultural multiracial, a little frenzied in all the best and most beautiful ways.”
Even though she comments that America is “diverse yet deeply segregated — more mosaic than melting pot,” Kamala Harris represents all that is good about American society, never mind the huge improvements that are needed. She has in the past butted heads with powerful political and financial lobbies, so liberals can look forward to an era of enlightenment, if she wins and is allowed to aim for a humane agenda towards all races, abused women, sexual minorities, the underprivileged and disenfranchised, it may just be what the country and the world needs.
It is by now well known that Kamala Harris was born in Oakland California to Shyamala Gopalan from Chennai, and Jamaican-American Donald Harris; her parents met when they were studying at Berkeley and married soon after. The marriage did not last too long, however, and after the birth of Kamala and her sister Maya, they divorced. Kamala was not cut off from her father’s side of the family, and spent vacations with him. But she calls her scientist mother her biggest influence.
“She was extraordinary,” writes Harris, “My mother was barely five foot one, but I felt like she was six foot two. She was smart and tough and fierce and protective. She was generous, loyal and funny… she pushed us hard and with high expectations as she nurtured.”
Kamala grew up in the Sixties, when the process of desegregation was slowly underway. Young people were getting politically conscious and protesting racial and social inequalities, quite vociferously. Harris writes, “My parents often brought me in a stroller with them to civil rights marches. I have young memories of a sea of legs moving about, of the energy and shouts and chants. Social justice was a central part of family discussions.” Among her parents’ friends were politically engaged activists, thinkers and human rights crusaders. Her mother was “enveloped” in the black community, says Harris, “It was the foundation of her new American life.” Today, when the Indian community in the US is growing in power, wealth and influence, Kamala Harris can reclaim her Indian heritage too, but back then, she could not have come across too many Indians in the neighbourhood — though she was in touch with her mother’s relatives in India. Still, when she married Dough Emhoff, “In keeping with our respective Indian and Jewish heritage, I put a flower garland around Doug’s neck, and he stomped on a glass.” Her husband’s children from his first marriage, Cole and Ella, call her “Momala.”
A career in law and then in politics was inevitable and over the years, she never shied away from big fights, and pushing for policy changes — she stood up against the big banks who were fraudulently foreclosing on homes of people in California, she fought against the horrible practice of separating children from their illegal immigrant parents, who were fleeing violence and abuse in their home countries; she officiated the first gay marriage when after a long and bitter fight, gay marriages were legalised; she calls for reforms in the criminal justice system, openly biased against the poor; she points out where medical reforms are needed. As a woman, she sympathises with survivors of sexual violence, is surprisingly compassionate towards underage drug users, she tackled school truancy, initiated the Back On Track, programme to help released prisoners get reintegrated into society. Her observations show that she understands the complexities of race, class and gender in America. She quotes a 2015 report that found that 95 percent of the country’s elected prosecutors were white and 79 percent were white men.
There’s no denying that it is a campaign book, written to highlight her achievements and de-emphasise her failures — it was published before Harris’s failed run at the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination — and over time, she has been criticised for some of the policy changes she initiated. But in the flashes of her personal life that come through, is where she shows glimpses of her real self, not just the high-achieving lawyer and politician. “When you break through a glass ceiling, you’re going to get cut,” she writes. And any woman who aimed at the top would second that.
In a few weeks, the US will decide if they want a woman of colour as their President. If she wins, history will be made. Even if she does not, she has slayed her share of dragons and will undoubtedly continue to do so. She is a role model anyway — the first in many ways, but as she writes, not the last. She quotes one of her mother’s favourite sayings, ” Don’t let anybody tell you who you are. You tell them who you are.” Happy Birthday, Kamala Harris!
Deepa Gahlot is a Mumbai-based columnist, critic and author
