Seeing a brighter future through 14- year- old eyes
Watching Vice Presidentelect Kamala Harris’ victory speech on Nov. 7 was more than just a study break from my eighthgrade homework. It was a welcome moment of inspiration after the tedium of online school that has come to define the past year. As I sat on my living room sofa, Ms. Harris looked me in the eye and promised me that “while I may be the first woman in this office, I won’t be the last. Because every little girl watching tonight sees that this is a country of possibilities.”
And that night, I saw that it is.
That night will go down as the moment that a Black, Indian woman was elected as vice president. Michelle Obama tells us that people of color have “got to be twice as good to get half as far.” As a 14- year- old, female South Asian- American myself, seeing Ms. Harris become the VP- elect proved to me that people of color can go as far as their dreams can take them — even if it does mean that they have to work harder. That she is a woman makes her achievements all the more inspiring to me and my friends.
Last year, during the Democratic primaries, I saw a YouTube video of Ms. Harris and Mindy Kaling cooking masala dosas together in Ms Kaling’s kitchen. For those who aren’t familiar, a masala dosa is a South Indian pancake stuffed with a savory and spicy potato filling — it’s something I’ve grown up eating and consider my own comfort food. Watching both of them cooking dosas and eating them ( with their hands!) made me feel that who I am can be as American as apple pie. That is something I never could’ve imagined given the past four years.
What I admire about Ms. Harris is that she embraces all of the layers of her identity: she is a woman, she is Indian, she is Black, she is a lawyer. She was raised by a single mom and is married to a White, Jewish man. She doesn’t hide who she is to fit in and is unapologetic about every aspect of who she is. None of this makes her any less American: by embracing all of the layers of her identity, she embodies the American story and the American dream.
Ms. Harris inspires me to embrace every part of my identity every day. The path that she has carved shows me that there are no limits to what I can contribute to America while still being South Asian, Muslim, and female. As I get older, the answer to the question of who I am grows and changes every day. But, thanks to Ms. Harris, I see that it need not be the color of my skin, nor my religion, culture, or gender by which I am judged, but rather the content of my character and my contributions to this country.
It won’t be all smooth sailing. I was privileged to attend an exclusive all- girls school on the Upper East Side of Manhattan for eight years — it is the kind of place that seeks to empower young women to become all they can be. Yet even at an institution dedicated to combating gender discrimination, I witnessed racial discrimination, both subtle and overt. From what I read, what I saw at my school is also true of other elite girls’ schools in New York City. Keep in mind, this is in Manhattan, where 85 percent of voters chose Ms. Harris — a woman of color — to be their next vice president. These students spend their formative years in an environment in which instances of racial discrimination are routinely swept under the rug. Clearly, even those with the best of intentions are not infallible.
Important work still remains. Witnessing the Confederate flag brandished in our nation’s Capitol during the events of Jan. 6 is yet another reminder that while Ms. Harris being chosen as the VP elect is a step in the right direction, we can’t be complacent. I am confident that my generation will rise to the challenge. Whether it’s through women’s marches, BLM TikTok memes, or writing Op- Eds inspired in part by YouTube videos of masala dosas — we will carve our own bend in the long arc of the moral universe.