“Although I am the first woman to occupy this office, I will not be the last”: Kamala Harris
New York:
The first female vice president and symbol of American diversity, Kamala Harris has electrified many women and minority voters on the American left, who see her more as the future than Joe Biden.
As the celebrations rolled out in major cities, enthusiasm for some shifted from Biden’s election victory to his running mate.
“She is a wonderful role model for young girls,” said Theodora Egbuchulam, a New York lawyer. The 55-year-old black woman had gone to Times Square to celebrate the news.
“Kamala represents the future and it makes me so proud that after all that has been done and said, we have an African American woman in the White House,” Egbuchulam said.
“It tells young girls and boys that America looks more like us than just a white man.”
At 56, Harris brings new energy to the future administration of Biden, who at 77 is the longest-serving president-elect. But her victory is even sweeter for the women who watched Hillary Clinton suffer a shocking loss to Donald Trump four years ago.
“We’ve never had a woman in power like this. It’s amazing,” said Devi Kowlessar, a New York realtor who is Indo-American, like Harris.
“I hope it will bring the Americans together and make it disappear for the past four years,” Kowlessar added, referring to Trump’s tenure. “We want her to unite people, to bring love.”
From fiction to reality
“‘Madame Vice President’ is no longer a fictional character,” tweeted actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who played the role in the famous comedy series ‘Veep’.
For her victory speech on Saturday night, Harris wore a white suit in tribute to the suffragists who fought 100 years ago to win the franchise for American women.
The California native invoked the memory of his Indian mother, who died of cancer in 2009, and praised “the generations of women, black women, Asian women, white, Latin, Native American who, throughout history of our country, paved the way for this moment tonight. “
“I still can’t believe it, that we’ll have someone in the White House who looks like me,” said Robin Brown, the head of a New York-based NGO that helps pro-choice Democratic candidates to stand up for themselves. get elected.
But Harris was a polarizing figure on the election track: described as a “monster” by Trump, many voices on the left also criticized Biden’s choice of vice-presidency.
Some people, such as Senator Bernie Sanders’ former campaign spokesperson Briahna Joy Gray, viewed Harris as a “cop” – guilty, they say, of making oppressive political choices when she was a district attorney. of San Francisco (2004-2011) which particularly struck minority communities.
Power of representation
For Kelly Dittmar, research director at the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, Harris brings “the perspective and lived experiences of a black and South Asian woman who lived her life in the United States.”
For her, it is the power of “representation”: “It brings diverse perspectives to the table that allow for better and more inclusive decision-making.”
Harris brought “a certain level of excitement and enthusiasm that helped the campaign” mobilize Democratic female voters, according to Dittmar.
Harris’ appointment also reassured those concerned about “the regression, that we are returning to an all-male vision or image of leadership …” with the choice between Biden and Trump, both in their sixties, added the academic.
In his speech on Saturday in Wilmington, Delaware, Harris promised, “While I may be the first woman in this office, I won’t be the last.”
For Vera Green, a 29-year-old management consultant in New York City, “the glass ceiling is shattered.
“It’s so deeply personal, I think, for every woman everywhere,” she said. “It’s a big step forward for women.”
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
