John Tenth
11/07/2020 1:36 PM
Clarín.com
World
Updated 11/07/2020 1:36 PM
The possibility that an African-American woman with an immigrant background could be on the center stage of US politics for a long time sounded like a pipe dream.
But now it became a reality, with the arrival of Kamala Harris to the vice presidency, by the hand of future president Joe Biden.
Even though in the last decades the country was turning more and more towards a multiethnic society, that composition was not reflected in the high command of the country.
Harris, first generation of Americans, daughter of a Jamaican and an Indian, is the face of the
profound demographic change that the United States has
been going through from the middle of the 20th century to this part.
From militancy to the crudeness of politics
Born in Oakland, California, on October 20, 1964, Kamala Harris grew up in the intellectual environment of Berkley that her parents,
both academics
, belonged to
.
His father is an economist who came to the US in 1961 from Jamaica, while his mother is an Indian-born scientist who immigrated to California in 1960.
Kamala Harris, pictured in 2004, when she was still the San Francisco Attorney General.
Photo: AP
He has a younger sister named Maya Harris.
And she's married to attorney Douglas Emhoff.
Kamala says acts and demonstrations in favor of civil rights are among her earliest childhood memories.
"I remember a
sea of legs
moving in front of me, the energy, the screams and the harangues": this is how he described what he saw and experienced from his short stature.
When she started elementary school, Harris was the second litter to participate in the desegregated groups at Berkley, an initiative that sought to
combat racism
and that she has cited as a
central formative experience of her life
.
Kamala Harris, between Corey Booker, left, and Bernie Sanders, right, during debates in the 2019 Democratic primary. Photo: REUTERS
In fact, these brushes with discrimination were so intense that Harris said several times that they were an impetus to move away from his parents' militancy and into the world of politics, which is where he felt he could produce
real change
.
Received as an attorney in 1989, she joined the Alameda County, California Attorney's Office in 1991. In 2003, she became the San Francisco District Attorney, and in 2011, the
California State Attorney General
.
Classified as the "progressive" of the presidential formula, given Biden's centrist reputation, the truth is that his performance as a prosecutor has generated
fierce criticism
from the left of the Democratic Party.
The central charge is that during his years in the prosecution he was too condescending to the police.
Some analysts, however, point to the fact that Harris had few options given his position (and his ambitions) to work side-by-side with security forces.
Joe Biden, with Kamala Harris.
Photo: AP
They also point out that their track record is not as dichotomous as they make it sound.
Early in his career, Harris, who
opposes the death penalty
, refused to ask for such punishment for a man accused of killing a police officer.
This earned him the antipathy of the Force, an animosity that almost cost him his place as Attorney General: When he ran for office in 2011, he barely outscored his rival, a Republican who did have the support of the police, by one point.
It was because of this, his defenders claim, that in his early years as a prosecutor he
avoided cases of police brutality.
However, after the murder of the young black Michael Ferguson in 2014, the event that gave birth to the
Black Lives Matter
movement
, Harris veered towards a
more reformist
stance
.
Kamala Harris, with her husband, Douglas Emhoff.
Photo: AP
In 2017, he ran for Senator from California, and won.
In 2019, he participated in the Democratic primary elections, but
dropped out in December 2019
after his career failed to arouse adherence or significant enthusiasm.
In March 2020,
he publicly supported
Joe Biden's candidacy.
Equilibrium and risks
Kamala Harris, 56, will likely be one of the faces of the Democratic Party for decades to come if all goes well.
Biden has already said that if he wins, he will only serve one term, which
would put Harris as the main candidate of the party in the 2023 elections.
While Harris appears to be guaranteed the support of the Democratic Party establishment, the party's more progressive and left-wing rank and file
still distrust her
.
Among them are the supporters of two very popular former candidates, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
Harris's career is an example of how sometimes the most impeccable résumé needs a
wink of circumstance
.
It is fair to wonder if Harris would have shared the formula with Biden if the demonstrations calling for racial equality led by the
Black Lives Matters
movement
had not had such an impact
in recent months in the United States.
The political (and economic) dynamics of the coronavirus pandemic, coupled with cases of police brutality, led Biden to focus on choosing a running mate who would respond to this scenario.
The former Obama vice president had already pledged to elect a woman, and if this is added to the fact that the election almost always falls on a senator or a governor, Harris had practically all the tickets bought: she is the only woman of color who was a senator .
ap
Look also
Elections in America: Why Does the Kamala Harris-Mike Pence Debate Matter?
Elections in the United States: Donald Trump called his rival Joe Biden a "nutty"
Elections in the US: with Trump locked in the White House, Joe Biden takes (almost) the entire campaign