Senator Kamala Harris isn’t a stranger to navigating adversity or spearheading change. Kamala was reared by parents who were fighters for civil rights and demonstrated the power of education through the accomplishments of their own.
With a professor for a father and a scientist for a mother, Kamala encapsulated the excellency of her parents and used the lessons from them to propel her into her own destiny. Senator Harris opened up to Elle Magazine, outlining how her introduction into civics began when she was just a toddler marching with her parents during a march for civil rights in her hometown Oakland, California.
“My mother tells the story about how I’m fussing,” Harris says, “and she’s like, ‘Baby, what do you want? What do you need?’ And I just looked at her and I said, ‘Fweedom.’” Despite being upset from being momentarily separated from her parents at the march, a young Kamala still understood that freedom stands before personal comfortability.
From then until now, Kamala has maintained the same ideology that equality should be a right experienced by everyone and not just some of us. Kamala has stood by those most mistreated, disregarded, and excluded when it comes to the distribution of civil liberties. Kamala assertively has acknowledged these discrepancies and is actively working to defend those who are unable to fight for the justice that they are constitutionally entitled to.
Kamala has advocated for and implemented police and criminal justice reforms from the start of her career as a San Francisco district attorney and later as the California attorney general. Now as the first Black and Indian woman to be elected as the Democratic Vice President nominee, Kamala continues her mission towards eradicating inequities interwoven into our society.
After being the second black woman in the U.S. Senate’s history to be elected to senate in 2016, Kamala made a promise to herself after her godson Alexander, who was 7 at the time, became emotional over the 2016 election for Donald Trump. “I held him. I mean, it still brings me pain to remember how he felt, and what it made me feel, which is that I needed to protect this child. I had one way, in my mind, I thought the evening would go. And then there was the way it turned out. And so by the time I took the stage, I had ripped up my notes, and all I had was Alexander in my heart. And I took the podium and I said, ‘I intend to fight. I intend to fight.’”
For Kamala, justice extends beyond legalities. “It’s about freedom, it’s about equality, it’s about dignity. When you achieve equality, and freedom, and fairness, it’s not because I grant it to you. It’s because you fought for it because it is your right. This is not about benevolence or charity; it is about every human being’s God-given right. What do we collectively do to fight for that? That’s what justice represents to me—it’s about the empowerment of the people.”
Although the road to social justice for all has been vastly improved over the decades, there is still work to be done to undo the negative consequences that stem from years of systemic inequities towards those who are considered a minority in this country. Kamala recognizes this and is optimistic that she can make an impactful change.
“Optimism is the fuel driving every fight I’ve been in,” Harris said.
