Page 7 - CEEM Shopping Mag DECEMBER 2020

Black women pressured Biden to select a Black woman as his running mate because

it was Black women who put him on the path to victory in the Democratic primary

and although Harris was clearly on his short list, there were lingering concerns about

whether he would select her.

After all, she had directly challenged him during the first primary debate on the issue

of bussing with such passion and bluntness, it caught him off guard and as
speculated by many political pundits at the time, Harris clearly drew blood.

In addition, there was lingering speculation regarding her history as a prosecutor and

how her record in that regard might turn away some Black voters—especially Black

men. But, in the end and in the tradition of historian Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of

Rivals, Harris was his choice.

Concurrent with the announcement of his selection Biden wrote clearly about his

choice, “These aren’t normal times,” he said. “I need someone working alongside me

who is smart, tough, and ready to lead. Kamala is that person.”

Harris has lived the passion, joy, and pain of being Black in America, of being the child

of immigrant parents in America—her mother immigrated from India, her father from
Jamaica, of being female in America. Her parents divorced when she was young and

as a result, she and her younger sister shared the experience of so many people in

America of all races raised by single mothers. Today, she proudly acknowledges her

mother as the most influential person in her life.

She has lived the experiences of these communities because she is of these

communities. And voters across the country, looking for their own reflections in the
nation’s halls of power, seeing the resiliency of a people in Harris, voted in

unprecedented numbers to ensure that representation was reflected in the

leadership of America.

Kamala Harris Makes History | Page 4 of 5