It breathes a decidedly new air in the United States of America. Although the now former President Donald Trump is still on a war footing, Joe Biden is the new head of state. Accompanying him will be, for the first time in US history, a woman: Kamala Harris. But who is the new vice president of the United States?
Kamala Harris: origins, career, family
Biden’s new vice president embodies the essence of multi-ethnic America. Daughter of an Indian biologist and cancer researcher , who immigrated to the United States for study reasons, Kamala Harris was born in Oakland (California) in 1964. Her father, of Jamaican origin, is an economist . The two future spouses met in Berkeley. As she herself told in these long months of electoral campaign, her parents often took her to her demonstrations, thus educating her to claim civil rights, freedom and equality.
Kamala Harris likes to define herself as an “American fair” and a “happy warrior”, convinced that America is the best place to grow and be fulfilled. She studied in the best American faculties and began her career as a prosecutor in 1990. In 2016 she lands in the Senate and on 12 August 2020 Joe Biden chooses her as a candidate for the US vice president. She and she wife of Dough Emhoff since 2014. She has no children, but she plays the role of stepmother to the children that the Californian lawyer has had from her previous marriage.
The past as a prosecutor and criticism from the Black Lives Metter movement
Kamala Harris’ candidacy in these elections was not welcomed by everyone , on the contrary, the more radical left strongly criticized it. The new vice president, in the past called “Top Cop” for the toughness and intransigence shown over her years, is not forgiven the activity of attorney. The most controversial events concern in particular the rejection of the body cam obligation for the police and his “No” to sex change operations for transgender prisoners. Even the criminal persecution of parents as a barrier to early school leaving had caused a sensation and indignation in some.
During the electoral campaign , like the entire Democratic Party, she took the side of the Black Lives Matter movement. According to his detractors, however, this would have been a move to hide his past as an “uncompromising sheriff” and to try to ingratiate himself with even the most radical and hostile minds to the police who militate in the party.
All the firsts of Kamala Harris
Harris studied at Howard and Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco. She begins working as the Alameda County Deputy District Attorney. She later becomes her district attorney for San Francisco. In 2010 she is California attorney general: it is the first time that a woman has held that role , moreover black and Asian American.
In 2016 he ran for the Senate elections for the succession of the position left vacant by Barbara Boxer. On November 8 of the same year, she won the elections with a large majority, beating the other Democrat Loretta Sanchez. They were the first in the history of California without Republican candidates and the first in which an African-Asian American woman entered the American Senate. With Joe Biden’s victory, Kamala Harris is now America’s first female vice president in history.
Kamala Harris and the inauguration speech
From the stage in Wilmington, Delaware, Kamala Harris delivers a speech that could only revolve around women. Referring to her mother, she says: “When she arrived here aged 19 from India she did not imagine this moment, but she believed in an America where these moments are possible.”
Then he moves on to considerations of a more universal nature: “I think of women, black, Asian, white, Hispanic, Native American women, who throughout the history of this country have paved the way for this moment, sacrificed themselves for equality. , freedom and justice for all of us; I think of black women who too often are not considered, but are the backbone of our democracy. “
And in reference to the suffragettes who fought for the right to vote for women: “I think of all the women who worked to guarantee the right to vote and who now in 2020 with a new generation have voted and continue to fight to be heard. [ …] “Even if I am the first to hold this position, I will not be the last. Every little girl who looks at us tonight sees that this is a country full of possibilities. “
In a world in which political power is almost completely foreign to the female world, these words full of hope and determination have a great weight. Beyond political orientation, opinions or sympathies, her election is certainly an excellent sign for women and for the long path towards equality and gender equality.
