Harris is a trail blazer for every girl, immigrant child
In the winter of 1986, at the age of 10, I flew to Chicago from India to join my mother who had come to the United States to work as a nurse a few months earlier. Even at that age, I knew the United States was a land rich in opportunities.
I became a U.S. citizen as a sophomore at Penn State. I remember getting on an early morning bus to Philadelphia to take my citizenship oath with my father, only for the bus to be stuck in traffic and for me to miss the ceremony completely. The judge involved in the swearing-in took pity on me and administered a private swearing-in afterwards. At that point, I realized the power that a judge has to change someone’s story, to change someone’s life forever.
The 2016 election was a turning point for me. The results of the presidential election sealed the deal. I could no longer sit on the sidelines. For a naturalized citizen like myself, the rumblings that a mistake in one’s citizenship application could be grounds for citizenship status to be removed was frightening. After due consideration, I knew I would run a campaign for a judgeship.
In 2017, I was making a campaign speech to a room full of people and mentioned that I was living the “American dream.” A fellow candidate laughed at my statement. It was hurtful. For a second, I was truly taken back, stunned and embarrassed. Looking back, I realized that I should have been bolder. I should have spoken up. She may not have understood the struggles I endured to get to where I am now. I know what it is like to move to a foreign country, to struggle to meet everyday needs, to understand a new language and to learn to communicate in that language, to wear clothing I wasn’t used to, to learn to eat strange foods, to live without proper winter clothing or shoes in the bone-chilling cold of my new country. I’ve experienced what it’s like not to fit in.
Leaving that little village in Kerala, India, to come to the United States, to become the first Asian American elected to the bench in Fort Bend County, . I am living the American dream. As such, I take pride in the fact that I share some commonalities with the Democratic vice presidential candidate, Sen. Kamala Harris. She has reached heights that most of us can only dream of.
As the child of immigrant parents from Jamaica and India, she represents a cross-section of society that has never been truly represented in the U.S. Senate. As of 2019, there were only three senators of Asian American descent in the U.S. Senate: Mazie Hirono, Tammy Duckworth, and Harris,. There are only three Black senators in the U.S. Senate. Other than Harris, Tim Scott, Republican from North Carolina, and Cory Booker, Democrat from New Jersey. The fact that these five individuals are the only senators of Asian American and African American descent in our Senate, illuminates the enormity of what rests on Harris.
For every girl, especially every Black and brown girl, for every child of an immigrant, for my children, and for me, she is a stalwart and a trail blazer. The fact it took this long for a minority woman to be chosen as the first vice presidential candidate in the history of the United States highlights the depth of this struggle. I can’t imagine how difficult it would have been for her to be a mixed-race child growing up in 1960s America, a society far more segregated and racially divided than today. She worked hard and persevered in the middle of adversity to become the district attorney of San Francisco. As DA, she started a program to give first-time drug offenders the chance to earn a high school diploma. She then became the attorney general of California in 2010. Harris fought for families and won a $25 billion settlement against the banking industry on behalf of California homeowners, whose houses were foreclosed on unfairly.
In 2016, Harris was elected as a senator from
California. She was the second Black woman and first South Asian woman in the history of the United States Senate. She has introduced and co-sponsored legislation to help the middle class, increase the minimum wage, to reform bail bonds and defend the legal rights of refugees and immigrants. She has broken the glass ceiling for many of us to follow.
Harris is also living the quintessential American dream.
On behalf of millions of women in this country, I salute her and wish her success.