On November 7, 2020, while Mary J. Blige sang “girl don’t hold back, you just be yourself,” Kamala Harris walked out onto a stage at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware. 

Her bold strides and upright head made her seem much taller than her five foot, two-inch frame and her effortless smile lit her face and the already illuminated atmosphere around her. 

In the coming weeks, she will take her oath of office.

Madam Vice President.  

It’s no longer a dream, a fictional tale, or a someday idea.  

It’s here. It’s now.

Symbolism of the Moment

Harris wore a stunning white pantsuit and a blouse with a lavalliere or pussycat bow, which flattered her, but further emphasized the moment. Women fought for decades for the right to vote. Even Harris’ adorable grandnieces wore white, too. 

In I848, a group of anti-slavery activists began the suffragette movement, even before this nation’s Civil War. Opponents and the media portrayed the women as masculine and unattractive.  To counter the image, suffragettes often wore white, especially in parades, to symbolize the cause’s purity and femininity. It took another seventy-two years to secure that right. Another forty-five to guarantee it to black men and women.

Many women politicians wear white whenever they want to express themselves. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (Democrat–NY) wore white to the 2019 new-member swearing-in ceremony to “honor the women who paved the path before me, and for all the women yet to come.” Hillary Clinton and Geraldine Ferraro also wore white when they accepted the 2016 Presidential and 1984 Vice Presidential nominations, respectively. In 1968, Shirley Chisholm wore white on the night New Yorkers elected her the first black woman to the Congress (Democrat-NY-12 District). And, many Democratic Congresswomen wore white to Donald Trump’s 2019 and 2020 State of the Union Addresses to represent women’s rights and other marginalized groups.  

Harris’ pussycat bow blouse originally became fashionable in the 1980 when women assumed executive spots. In the film “Working Girl,” when Melanie Griffith’s character rises to a professional position, she ditches her former garments and dons a suit and pussycat bow blouse.  Former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher used the blouse as a trusty fashion accessory and other women politicians quickly copied the trend. Fashion and costume historian Shelby Ivey Christie noted that Harris’ monochromatic outfit also celebrated the black community and meaningfully communicated spiritual and political views. Christie tweeted, “If we’re dressed in one color head-to-toe, know it’s lit.”

Harris was not the first female Vice Presidential candidate. In 1984, Walter Mondale chose the aforementioned Geraldine Ferraro, a three-term Democratic Representative for New York, as his running mate, when the pair unsuccessfully challenged Ronald Regan’s reelection. Sarah Palin, Republican Governor for Alaska, was the second. John McCain chose her as his running mate when he and Barack Obama went up against one another in 2008. Harris is, however, the first Black-South Asian-American to run for the job. Her mother, an Indian diplomat, researched breast cancer, and her father, a Jamaican native, taught economics at Stanford University. She was born in Oakland, California, but after her parents’ divorce, spent much of her childhood in Montreal, Canada.  

So, how’d she get there?  

Road to the Ticket

Harris returned to the states to attend Howard University, then went to the University of California, Hastings College of Law, and in 1989, earned her Juris Doctor. She then accepted a position at the Alameda County, District Attorney’s office and immediately began her public service career. In 2003, San Franciscans elected her District Attorney, where she concentrated on hate crimes against the LGBT community, indicted drug traffickers, and helped attain a $20 billion settlement for homeowners facing foreclosure. In November 2008, Californians elected her as their first female, Black-South Asian- American Attorney General and later reelected her.  She helped defeat Proposition 8, which opposed gay marriage, prosecuted those responsible for oil pipeline spills, and initiated a bureau to focus on children’s justice.

In 2016, Californians elected her to represent them in the senate, where she sat on several committees, including those that overlooked the Judiciary, Homeland Security, and Intelligence departments and vowed to watch out for immigrants. In 2018, after rebuking Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielson for not knowing Norwegians were mostly white, she added that the secretary’s other remarks did not address white supremacists’ danger to the nation’s security.

Harris additionally favored single payer healthcare and countered Republican attempts to undermine pre-existing healthcare protections. She opposed the death penalty and endorsed Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All bill, which would include a public option that would increase Obamacare subsidies and allow higher income eligibilities. She opposed Trump’s efforts to repeal Obamacare, maintaining such would make healthcare a privilege, supported middle class tax cuts, sought to raise the minimum wage, and backed tuition-free college education endeavors.  As well, she backs a woman’s right to choose and gun control, and, after George Floyd’s murder, called for police reform. Furthermore, she is more than twenty years younger than Biden and, thus, embodies a younger generation, and can speak for women and people of color.

All these factors checked Biden’s Vice Presidential wish list.

Criticisms

Throughout Harris’ political career, journalists and commentators questioned her law enforcement background and claimed she went after and hurt people of color. Her refusal to seek the death penalty for an individual who shot and killed a police officer also infuriated police.  First and foremost, prosecutors are government officials who represent the state and serve the public, not any government or police agency. They should be passionate, independent court officers who must not exhibit any kind of personal or partisan bias whatsoever and must serve justice, convict and punish the guilty, and defend the innocent. Secondly, nearly forty million people live in California and its current violent crime rates are around the national average. In other words, there are about 400 murders, 11,700 rapes, and 74,000 assaults each year, which leaves a lot of room for nitpicking. Journalists and commentators have also questioned the prosecutors and Attorney Generals before and since.

Strengths

While Harris leans progressive, she’s still more of a moderate, which fits in well with Biden’s manner and vision. Both backed progressive positions, such as healthcare for all, systemic racism reforms, and LGBTQ protections and equal marriage, but also recognized when other positions might hurt the party and turn away centrists and independents. They defeated Trump – the first and most important hurdle, and now they must unite, not just those the aisle divides, but those within the party.

Unfortunately, though, with Harris’ ascension to the Vice Presidency, there will longer be any black women senators – she was the only one at the time and the second voters ever elected to the senate (Carol Mosely of Illinois was the first and she only served one term [1993-1999]).  Also, in 2016, Tammy Duckworth became the second of three Asian American women to serve in the senate, after Mazie Hirono of Hawaii became the first in 2012 (Harris was the third). Of the 101 women serving in the House of Representatives, twenty-two are black, twelve are Latina, and two are Middle Eastern/North African.

Her election signifies hope and pride for black girls and women of all ages and backgrounds, many of whom celebrated her victory. Prominent black women leaders also took notice. Nadia Brown, Purdue University political science professor declared that her nomination paved the way for a new generation of Black female political leaders. Brown said, “What this symbolically shows is that she is there, she belongs and because of that, generations of other people that have been marginalized also belong.” Glynda Carr, founder and CEO of Higher Heights, a political action committee that helps Black women achieve elected office, said, “She has forever changed how you campaign, how you show up as your authentic self in bringing all your multiple identities to a campaign…(That) will translate not only for future presidential and VP runs, but certainly I think how women will show up as candidates for local offices as well.”

Harris’ election breaks other barriers, too. When India native Padma Lakshmi, host and executive producer of “Top Chef” and “Taste the Nation” heard of the Biden-Harris victory, she wept uncontrollably. She, too, heard the N-word and, for years and casting agents told her that her ethnicity wasn’t welcome.  Until Harris came along and used words, familiar Indian words, she had no role model. Then, Trump came along and assaulted women and Americans descendants of immigrants and told them to “go back where they belong.” As Vice president, Harris can be a uniter and healer, which President Joe Biden definitely needs and Americans of color deserve, especially after almost half of America’s whites failed to renounce Trump’s blatant racist politics and either further deepened or just watched the nation’s moral divide.

When she walked out onto that stage in Delaware on November 7, 2020, she assured everyone, “While I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last. Because every little girl watching tonight sees that this is a country of possibilities.”

Bottom line, she inspires women everywhere and people everywhere.

Uniqueness 

While Harris’ wardrobe on certain nights followed traditions and offered imagery, she certainly has her own style. Who else can pair sneakers with a suit and look absolutely stunning? And, we must not overlook Harris’ first name. It originates from the Sanskrit word for lotus flower. The flower’s roots grip to river mud and, every night, sink under the water, only to rebloom the next morning, fresh and clean. Various civilizations relate the lotus’ daily process to rebirth and spiritual enlightenment. It’s undeniably fitting.  

Girl don’t hold back
You just be yourself

In the coming weeks.  

Welcome, Madam Vice President.