Obama gave hope, Harris offers US healing

To ascertain the potential for a vice-presidency to make a difference, one need look no further than Joseph Robinette Biden jnr. Barack Obama’s vicepresident for eight years will rise beyond that position tomorrow, when he is sworn in as the 46th President of the United States.

Biden’s VP, Kamala Harris, is already considered the frontrunner for the 2024 Democratic presidential primary, on her way to being the first woman president, and the first of East Asian descent.

With a mother from India and father from Jamaica, Harris was raised in California as a Black child. Her parents divorced when she was 7 and when she and her sister Maya visited their father in Palo Alto, other children were not allowed to play with them because they were Black.

It is evident Harris has lived the inequality which stains the Land of the Free and frustrates the estimated 40 million Black Americans to this day.

Black voters helped deliver Biden’s presidency, overwhelmingly backing him from the start of his bid. Black-led organising work mobilised voters of colour and contributed to historic turnout in battleground states.

This inauguration will look vastly different, given the coronavirus pandemic and security concerns after a mob of pro-Trump extremists violently breached the US Capitol two weeks ago.

Shortly before 9am tomorrow (NZ time), Harris is due to be sworn in by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, herself the first Hispanic and Latina member of the court.

The act will be more than symbolic to the downtrodden in divided states and cities. It will be tangible evidence the change that Martin Luther King jnr dreamed of and Sam Cooke sang about, has indeed come.

Yesterday, Biden and Harris pitched in on Martin Luther King Jnr Day service projects in Philadelphia. In the parking lot of Philabundance, an organisation distributing food to those in need, the pair and their partners helped fill about 150 boxes with fresh fruit and non-perishables. More pitching in will be needed, particularly on policies to aid communities that were already struggling before the pandemic.

Where Obama’s famous woodcut style posters famously offered hope to the US in 2008, Harris now offers healing.