CHICAGO (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris, on the night she became the first woman of Black and South Asian heritage to be a major party’s presidential nominee, didn’t explicitly mention the racial and gender firsts she would set if elected to the White House.
And following her speech, the relatives who joined her onstage for the traditional balloon drop included people of different and often multiple, overlapping races, like Harris herself.
Harris’ heritage was made an issue by her opponents Former President Donald Trump, Harris’ Republican opponent, has questioned her Black heritage and falsely suggested to a gathering of Black journalists that she changed how she presented her racial roots when convenient.
“I know she’s watching us tonight, as a Black woman stands up to accept the nomination for president of the United States,” Sharpton said.
At the beginning of the convention’s closing night program, Harris’ voice was heard in a biographical video played to delegates about the vice president and her sister’s upbringing.
Their Indian mother, the vice president explained, raised her daughters as Black because she felt that was how the world would see them first.
DNC watchers welcomed Harris’ historic moment Harris has maintained close ties to Howard, her alma mater, and to her sorority.
But some, like her late grandmother, would have loved to see the first Black woman accept a presidential nomination.
CHICAGO (AP) — Though she became the first woman of Black and South Asian descent to be nominated for president by a major party on that evening, Vice President Kamala Harris made no mention of the firsts she would set in terms of gender and race if she were elected.
She chose to make clear references to her upbringing and multiracial background instead. As the daughter of a Caribbean man and a brown woman, she honored her heritage. She paid tribute to the diverse community of “uncles” and “aunties” in the Bay Area of California. Additionally, relatives of Harris’s own race as well as others of diverse and frequently overlapping racial backgrounds joined her onstage for the customary balloon drop after her speech. Saris were worn next to Western clothes.
It gave Harris and other convention attendees a platform to share her life story while delivering a politically charged visual statement that would resonate with a wide range of individuals who identify with families similar to her own. In the neighborhood of 12.5% of U. S. , residents reported identifying as two or more races in 2022, up from 3% ten years prior. s. The most extensive survey of American life conducted by the Census Bureau.
After enslaving African Americans for centuries, the United States imposed legal, economic, and social apartheid for an additional century. Additionally, it denied Black Americans equal representation at political party conventions. White immigrants were explicitly given preference under the country’s immigration laws for a long time. Women were denied the ability to vote until a century ago.
Many people in the Chicago arena were thinking about those issues. In observance of the suffrage movement, many attendees wore white.
The opponents raised concerns about Harris’s heritage.
A group of Black journalists was told falsely by Harris’ Republican opponent, former president Donald Trump, that Harris altered her racial heritage presentation when it fit her agenda. Sen. Trump’s running mate, Ohio senator JD Vance, refers to Harris as a “chameleon,” a term his supporters claim alludes to her policy vacillations, and he jokes that she has a “fake Southern accent.”. “.
“I think the thing that we cannot forget is oftentimes these pendulum swings that we see, the word that continues to force the pendulum swing is race,” Maryland Gov. In an interview, Wes Moore stated.
According to Moore, who spoke to the convention on Wednesday, since the nation’s founding, discussions about diversity and racial progress have gone “through fits and starts.”.
“That’s the fundamental problem that I believe our society is still grappling with,” he subsequently stated.
As a tribute to her South Asian background, several speakers revealed the vice president’s middle name, Devi, during the convention roll call, during which delegates promised votes to nominate Harris.
Several presenters mentioned Harris’ race with pride. Leader of the civil rights movement Rev. The National Action Network’s president and CEO, Al Sharpton, observed that Harris’ achievement would make Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to Congress and subsequent presidential candidate in 1972, proud.
As a Black woman steps up to accept the nomination for president of the United States, I know she’s watching us tonight, Sharpton remarked.
The comedian DdotL. Speaking ahead of Harris on Thursday, Hughley addressed Trump’s insinuation that Harris had previously minimized her Black identity despite attending Howard University, a historically Black institution, and frequently discussing her African American ancestry during her early political career.
“Trump has been a Republican for less time than Kamala has been Black,” he joked.
Hughley gave a hand signal that is typical of Omega Psi Phi, a historically Black fraternity, as he left the stage. It was also a reference to Harris’s affiliation with Alpha Kappa Alpha, Inc., a historically Black sorority. are both members of the Divine Nine Greek Letter Associations, which have graduate and college chapters spread across the nation.
About her ancestry, Harris was candid.
Barack Obama mentioned his mother was from Kansas and his father was from Kenya when he became the first Black man to accept a Democratic nomination in 2008. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton declared to the 2016 convention that they had “reached a milestone: the first time that a major party has nominated a woman for President—in our nation’s march toward a more perfect union.”. “.
Growing up in Oakland, California, a working-class town and once a thriving African American enclave known as the birthplace of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense, Harris was the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India.
Being the oldest child, Harris observed how the world sometimes treated her mother, a five-foot-tall, brown woman with an accent. However, my mother never lost her composure. “.
“She taught us to never complain about injustice but to take action to change it,” she continued. She added that we should never take a “half-hearted” approach to anything. And that is an exact quotation. “.
She said that despite the brief existence of her mother and father’s marriage, her father had always pushed her to take chances. “Kamala, run! Run! Do not fear. Don’t let anything hold you back, said Harris.
A biographical film about the vice president and her sister’s upbringing was shown to delegates at the start of the convention’s closing night program, and Harris’ voice could be heard. The vice president clarified that the reason their Indian mother brought up her daughters as Black was because she believed that’s how the world would first see them.
Observers of the DNC praised Harris’ momentous achievement.
Harris has continued to have strong relationships with her sorority, Howard University, and both.
Both in Chicago and in her home San Francisco Bay Area, many of her “sorors,” as Alpha Kappa Alpha members call one another, and other Divine Nine members were in attendance.
Because it was “important to be here to really witness history,” Shannon Nash made the trip to Chicago from the Bay Area. “.
Nash, an AKA sorority member and co-founder of Tech for Kamala, said, “The last two weeks have been energetic, hopeful, joyful and just to be a part of this movement.”. It is really significant to be able to tell my grandchildren that I was present when it occurred. “.
Black actress Nash claimed to have older relatives who witnessed Harris’ election as vice president. Still, there are those who would have welcomed the first Black woman to accept a presidential nomination, such as her late grandmother.
One thing delegate Pat Pullar from Clayton County, Georgia, said she wanted to do “before I leave this earth” was witness Harris make history. “.
She said on Wednesday, “It feels like my ancestors are dancing.”
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