Congratulations to Kamala Harris. The 1st Indian American woman to become a Vice Presidential candidate
When I decided to write my latest book ‘Women Behaving Courageously’ I wanted to research modern day female leaders and female warriors. I had loved the stories of the Suffragettes – women who literally died so other women could have the vote. But I wanted today’s heroes. I found 25, and Kamala Harris is one of them.
Extract: ‘Harris is actually the daughter of a warrior and the granddaughter of a warrior. An American lawyer and member of the Democratic Party, Harris entered the race to become POTUS in 2019 but withdrew in December that same year. Born in Oakland, California, Harris is a graduate of Howard University and the University of California, Hastings College of Law.
In 1990, long before her aspirations to become president emerged, she was a deputy district attorney in Alameda County, California, where she specialised in child sexual abuse trials, which she acknowledged was a particularly difficult and heart-breaking kind of prosecution given that juries are more likely to believe the word of an adult over the word of a child.
She went on to become the 27th district attorney of San Francisco from 2004 to 2011, the first Jamaican American and the first Indian American attorney general in California to do so. She progressed to becoming the 32nd attorney general for the same district from 2011 to 2017.
As a senator she is a passionate advocate for single-payer healthcare, for creating a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, and for banning assault rifles. She also campaigns on lowering the tax burden on lower-income families while raising taxes for corporations and the wealthiest people in America.
Her mother, Shyamala, is breast-cancer scientist who immigrated to America in 1960 to pursue a doctorate in endocrinology. Shyamala is a Tamil Indian, an upper-class Brahman whose bloodline can be traced back over 1000 years. Even before Shyamala came to America she was described as a feminist. Her concern was that the women who did her family’s laundry were often the victims of domestic violence. Harris’s father is a Stanford University economics professor who emigrated from Jamaica in 1961 to study economics at UC Berkeley. Harris identifies as both African American and Indian American and is a descendant from a Jamaican slave owner.
Harris knows that female candidates have a hard time when applying for political positions, but suggests that black females have an even tougher battle. She is aware that most ‘whites’ see black women as servants, maids or cooks. Her recommendations to younger women of colour who have aspirations to be more than maids or cooks is to become active on social, cultural and charitable boards. It gives women a starting point, a place to learn the ropes; a way to build networks and to start to earn respect.
It was during various congressional hearings that Kamala made her real mark. She fearlessly questioned Jeff Sessions, Brett Kavanaugh and Bill Barr, the newly appointed attorney general. Her questioning of Jeff Sessions as to whether he had communicated with any Russians during the 2016 presidential campaign was met with endless replies of ‘I don’t remember’ or ‘I don’t recall’. She had him virtually begging for mercy when he said that her questioning ‘made him nervous’.
Similarly her questioning of Brett Kavanaugh as he was being vetted for a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court left him floundering. Given that Kavanaugh is a staunch anti-abortionist no matter a woman’s or a girl’s situation, she asked him if he knew of any laws ‘that the government has to make over the male body’. After a very long silence, he replied, ‘I’m not aware of any right now, Senator.’
And finally her eviscerating of Bill Barr when she asked, ‘Has the President or anyone at the White House ever asked or suggested that you open an investigation of anyone? Yes or no, please, sir.’ A question that caused him to huff and puff while trying his very best not to answer the question and possibly perjure himself. By his actions he let America know that he probably had.
What was stunning about these three situations is that all three men are seasoned politicians, yet here they were, all three of them, unable to answer questions they must have known they would be asked.
Matt Stieb, writing for the New York Intelligencer, says: ‘Though Kamal Harris’s record as a prosecutor might not be helping her run for the Democratic presidential nomination, her past role as California’s top cop has certainly prepared her for her role on the Senate Judiciary Committee. During Attorney General William Barr’s testimony regarding his handling of the Mueller report, Harris cemented her reputation, already established during the Kavanaugh hearings, as the Senate Democrats’ most acute questioner.’
She was soundly berated by many male Republican senators for what they saw as aggressive questioning; these were the self- same senators who had grilled Christine Blasey Ford, who is not a seasoned politician. Yet no-one complained about their behaviours or the way she was treated. It seems if men aggressively question a witness that is seen as them being assertive; if a woman does the same she is viewed as a ball-breaker. Funny standards.
She may never be POTUS, but imagine if one day, when a Democrat sits in the Oval Office, she replaces Bill Barr as the attorney general. I’d suggest Sessions, Kavanaugh and Barr will be heading for the hills or purchasing land on a remote island somewhere with no connectivity.
‘I grew up hearing stories about my grandmother — my mother’s mother — who used to go to villages in India in her little VW bug. My grandmother would take a bullhorn and make sure women in those villages knew how to access birth control.’’
I predict that there will be a whole lot of people in the current administration quaking in their shoes right now.
Ann Andrews, CSP. Author, speaker, profiler, Life Member PSANZ
Author of:
Lessons in leadership: 50 ways to avoid falling into the ‘Trump’ trap
Leaders Behaving Badly: What happens when ordinary people show up, stand up and speak up
NOW AVAILABE: ‘Women Behaving Courageously: How gutsy women, young and old, are transforming the world’