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Kamala Harris – A Lotus Takes Root in America

Meeting Kamala Harris in the flesh is compelling. I experienced it first hand when I saw her take the stage for a fundraiser for a nonprofit in New York two years ago. This was before the pandemic and over 500 Indian-Americans had gathered close, excited to meet one of their own. For them the name ‘Kamala’ resonated – almost every Indian knows or has a Kamala amongst family and friends. In her well-defined Indian eyes and luminous smile, in her genes there were echoes of a shared past and ancestry.

Senator Kamala Harris – an Indian and Jamaican by birth, has just been anointed  the vice presidential nominee, Joe Biden’s running mate in the upcoming American presidential elections. Kamala  Harris becomes the first woman of color for the second highest job in the land.

Who would have thought 2020 would be the year that all America learned a Sanskrit word – ‘Kamala’, meaning lotus flower. It is quite a mouthful for most Americans to pronounce correctly but it represents the changing face, the changing colors and the multicultural spirit of America.

Indeed, according to Pew Research Center, this is the face of the future: “Joe Biden’s selection of Sen. Kamala Harris of California as his running mate in this year’s presidential election has sparked a conversation about multiracial identity in the United States. Harris, the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India, is among a relatively small but growing group of Americans with a multiracial background.”

Kamala Harris wrote ‘The Truths We Hold’ her 2019 memoir which gives us insights into her American journey,  passing through segregation and the civil rights movement, and a rough and tough growing up in Oakland, California. She persisted and went on to become the first black and Asian woman to be elected California Attorney General, and the first South Asian woman to be elected to the US Senate.

“Kamala, as you all know, is smart. She’s tough. She’s experienced. She’s a proven fighter for the backbone of this country, the middle class,” said Biden in introducing her to America. “She knows how to govern. She knows how to make the hard calls. She’s ready to do this job on day one.”

When Kamala took the stage at the virtual DNC, she showed how strong her Indian roots were by showcasing the biggest influence of her life, her mother Shyamala Gopalan Harris: “She came here from India at age 19 to pursue her dream of curing cancer. At the University of California Berkeley, she met my father, Donald Harris, who had come from Jamaica to study economics. They fell in love in that most American way — while marching together for justice in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. In the streets of Oakland and Berkeley, I got a stroller’s-eye view of people getting into what the great John Lewis called good trouble.”

‘Good trouble’ became a mantra of her life, and Harris has dedicated her life to fighting injustice and inequality. She recalls, “My mother instilled in my sister Maya and me the values that would chart the course of our lives. She raised us to be proud, strong Black women, and she raised us to know and be proud of our Indian heritage.”

In her acceptance speech, Harris said of her mother: “She taught us to be conscious and compassionate about the struggles of all people, to believe public service is a noble cause, and the fight for justice is a shared responsibility.” That led Harris to become a lawyer, a district attorney, Attorney General, and a United States senator. “And at every step of the way, I’ve been guided by the words I spoke from the first time I stood in a courtroom — Kamala Harris, for the people.”

Biden’s choice has been well received. As the New York Times noted, “In announcing Ms. Harris, 55, as his vice-presidential nominee, Joseph R. Biden told supporters she was the person best equipped to “take this fight” to President Trump, making space in a campaign premised on restoring American decency for a willing brawler who learned early in her career that fortune would not favor the meek among Black women in her lines of work.”

Harris has been hailed as the female Obama by many. She represents so many different groups which each see themselves reflected in her, be it blacks, Asian, women or minority groups. In her multicultural family she has her husband Doug Emhoff, who is Jewish and her stepchildren who lovingly call her ‘Momala’.

According to Impact, a leading Indian American advocacy group and PAC, an estimated 1.3 million Indian-Americans are expected to vote in this year’s election,  including 200,000 in Pennsylvania and 125,000 in Michigan, both must-win battleground states.

“Kamala Harris’s story is the story of a changing, inclusive America. At a time of rapid change, she ties all our national threads together,” says Impact executive Director, Neil Makhija. “She represents the future and promise of this country. Her candidacy is historic and inspiring, not only for Black Americans, but for millions of Asian American voters, the fastest growing voting bloc in the country.”

Social media has been inundated with comments sharing the great excitement from Asians in her nomination. Wrote one Indian-American woman: “Definitely cried when Kamalaben talked about her mom. All but 5 feet tall. My mom is a short Gujarati immigrant. She cleaned many rooms in her life, she ran a motel while my dad worked, and she gave me opportunities she never had. Her mom and story is my mom and story!”

Monica Kumar from Arizona commented, “Biden & Harris 2020! Kamala Harris spoke beautifully and authentically to her Indian heritage. It is hard to describe what it means to be able to vote for her and Biden in my first Presidential election since becoming an American citizen.”

As Manisha Sinha, a professor of history at the University of CT, wrote in the NYT, “Mr. Biden had the luck of having an array of talented women to choose from. His decision to pick Kamala Harris as his running mate seems like a personal gift to me. Not only does she represent the very groups mocked and vilified by Mr. Trump — women, Black people and immigrants — but also, as a woman of Afro-Indian descent, she might well be the future face of American politics.”

Subodh Chandra, a civil rights lawyer and the former law director of the City of Cleveland, Ohio has been a friend and supporter. He has seen the humanity of Kamala Harris at close quarters, be it with young children or with older people. When she came to his place she met his elderly parents who were visiting from Oklahoma and immediately took to his mother, calling her aunty and interacting as if the two had been in the same family forever. When she met his three boys who are triplets, there was so much genuine hugging – and not a politician’s hugs for a photo opp.

He says, “The sense you get from her is that she’s someone who really values family, who really values kids, really values good cooking and these things are important in life. On Twitter you have all these funny videos of her instructing her husband on food preparation. ”

Having seen her at work, Chandra says she has magnetism and positivity but also an ability to cut to the truth quickly, to immediately expose someone who is talking nonsense: “These qualities are going to make her a magnificent candidate and asset to the ticket and the country. And I think eventually our first female president.”

Shelly Kapoor Collins is a venture capitalist who founded Shatter Fund, which invests in women. She lives in San Francisco and has known Harris since 1998. She says, “You have to meet her to understand there’s something very charismatic about her. She’s fierce – and I love that in a woman who’s so strong and has paved the way for other women. She has a bold vision for the country and you believe her when she talks – her authenticity really comes through.”

For those who feel Harris is not Indian enough, Collins says, “As an Indian-American community, we need to rally around our candidate not because of shared heritage but because of shared values. We’re both Indian-American women but I believe in her vision. I believe in what she wants for America and it is compelling. I think the Indian-American community needs to align on values, not just on politics and identity politics.”

Collins believes that Kamala Harris is a trailblazer who’s setting an example of what is possible for women: “Representation matters and Kamala is making it known and visible that she is representative of what another Indian woman can be one day, what a black woman can be at this high level. Women can’t be what they can’t see – and she makes that possible.”

Many years ago when Kamala Harris was first running for the Senate, Shelly Kapoor Collins’  mother gave her a silver Lakshmi coin for Harris with  the blessing that she would succeed and go very far. Harris certainly understood the value and significance of that gift – and now decades later, the goddess Lakshmi still seems to be smiling on her.

In this year of George Floyd’s killing at the hands of racist police officers, of Black Lives Matter protests and  economic chaos amidst the horrific pandemic, Kamala Harris has teamed up with Joe Biden – two unlikely action heroes in a battle for the Soul of the Nation.

The Democratic National Convention which played out virtually in people’s homes with its range of wonderful speakers and down-to-earth glimpses of America, was like a balm on the wounded American psyche. A national convention is not a place to shed tears but when Preet Bharara asked a simple question on Twitter – ‘How many times have you cried during the DNC?” – his tweet received 75.5 k likes and 5.1 K retweets, so emotionally relieved have people been with the Biden-Harris ticket.

As one wrote, “This woman of color, growing up in modest circumstances, exemplifies what America is still capable of creating. We almost forgot. Thank you, Kamala and Joe, for reminding us that democracy can be ours again. It is but a vote away.”

Yet another said what many Americans believe, “Kamala Harris and Joe Biden both possess the one thing that will decide November: character.”

(A version of this article was published in The Week)

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