Indian mother taught me to fight for change: Harris
WASHINGTON: Appearing with Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, for the fist time after he named her his running mate, Senator Kamala Harris on Wednesday credited her Indian-born mother for inspiring her into a life in public service that led her to this historic moment.
“Don’t just sit around and complain about things,” Harris, 55, said her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, would tell her and younger sister Maya Harris when they were growing up. “Do something.” Gopalan, who came to the United States from Chennai and was a breast cancer researcher, passed away in 2009. But she has remained the most enduring influence in Harris’s life.
Harris made history on Tuesday as the first Indian-american and Black woman to run for vicepresident.
“Kamala is smart. She’s tough. She’s experienced. She’s a proven fighter for the backbone of this country, the middle class and those struggling to get into the middle class,” Biden said in his first public explanation of why he picked Harris.
The former vice-president said, “As the child of immigrants, she knows personally how immigrant families enrich our country, as well as the challenges of what it means to grow up Black and Indian-american in the United States.” The former vicepresident then went on to frame his pick in a larger context of a changing America: “And this morning, all across this nation little girls woke up – especially little Black and Brown girls who so often may feel overlooked and undervalued in our society — but today, maybe they’re seeing themselves for the first time in a new way. As the stuff of Presidents and Vice Presidents.”
Biden and Harris used their first public appearance together after the announcement to launch a blistering attack on President Donald Trump.