Kamala Harris Is Still Rising

ERIC BAZAIL EIMIL: Following the historic announcement that Biden had chosen Kamala Harris as his running mate, it seemed fitting that this quote from Maya Angelou’s poem “Still I Rise” circulated today: 

You may write me down in history 

With your bitter, twisted lies, 

You may trod me in the very dirt 

But still, like dust, I’ll rise. 

Kamala Harris hasn’t stopped rising. And we will be better because of it. 

She was California’s first Black District Attorney; the nation’s first Black female Attorney General; the first Black Senator from California and the nation’s first South Asian and second Black female United States Senator; the first Black woman and South Asian politician to be a presidential frontrunner. Now, Kamala Harris makes history once again the first Black and South Asian Vice-Presidential nominee (as well as the first ever South Asian person on a national presidential ticket). 

Just eight months ago, I was in tears as I read that Harris was dropping out of the Presidential race. It was a stunning fall for a candidate that had mesmerized the nation with a massive announcement rally, powerful debate performances, and a life story that lived and breathed the American Dream. It wasn’t enough to overcome the nascent prejudices of a media establishment growingly becoming more white, male and privileged, the fears many Black Democrats had around electability after Clinton’s defeat in 2016, and the short memories of many progressives. Harris was dismissed as a “cop,” as “unelectable” and as “too ambitious” despite her incredibly effective and progressive record as a Senator, law enforcement leader, and advocate.  

A week ago, it seemed like the Biden campaign was about to play into the same trap from the primaries. A week ago, this moment seemed impossible. Now, as we open a new day, I’m shedding tears of joy as she ascends into the pantheon of political history. The announcement is not just a day of vindication for one of our nation’s greatest trailblazers, but for Black women who have long struggled to crack the double glass ceilings associated with their gender and their race. 

Black women, despite being the cornerstones of the Democratic Party’s base, have been shut out of the conversation and haven’t seen themselves represented at the tops of the Democratic Party’s leadership. Black women have experienced far greater pay discrimination than white women, deal with the added pressures of misogynoir, and have been reduced and caricatured through stereotypes of the “angry Black woman.” Harris, as a national figure for many years, has dealt with the pains and scars of this exposure. Women like Kamala Harris have too often been told to sit down and stay in their place, but she refused to ask permission when it came to leadership. She has refused to bow at the unfair criticism of her record. She has refused to dignify the special hatred weaponized against her as an intelligent, strong, ambitious Black woman politician. 

It was Kamala Harris who most forcefully challenged Vice President Biden on his record working with segregationists (reminder here too for some of the lazy commentators on Twitter, she explicitly said there that she did not believe Biden was a racist). It was Kamala Harris who challenged powerful men like William Barr, Jeff Sessions, Brett Kavanaugh and Jeff Ratcliffe in Senate hearings, even gaining the respect of Republicans like Marco Rubio and Lindsey Graham in the process. It was DA Kamala Harris who stood up to the police unions and refused to pursue the death penalty against a defendant who murdered San Francisco police officers with a semiautomatic weapon. It was AG Kamala Harris who stood up to the big banks and earned the largest settlement for homeowners during the mortgage crisis. And so on, and so forth. Every time, Kamala rose. Kamala, like so many Black women have had to do every single day, kept rising as she strove to honor her late mother’s directive: “you may be the first to do many things, but make sure you’re not the last.”

This election will be close, let’s not for a second doubt that. President Trump could very well be re-elected. But let’s be clear as well, today is a victory for our nation. It is a victory for all those that feel seen and represented in our nation’s political arena. And another, even greater, victory now looms if we can find it within ourselves to organize, volunteer, and vote — the chance to finally crack the glass ceiling once and for all. We just have to let Kamala Harris keep rising. 

Eric Bazail Eimil is a sophomore in the School of Foreign Service studying Latin American and African Politics. A proud Cuban-American, his passions include Florida politics, US foreign policy towards emerging nations and America’s complex relationship with race, identity and power.