Aight, so we gonna talk about Kamala, and we’re gonna do it respectfully, and we’re gonna keep the comment section free of political discourse, sound good? Like, legitimately if I see y’all going wild down there, Imma just delete your post. We’re talking about history.
Kamala Devi Harris was born in Oakland, California in 1964. Her mother was Shyamala Gopalan, a biologist in the field of bio-medicine. Her mom did work studying a progesterone receptor that greatly advanced the science surrounding breast cancer. Her father Donald J Harris is a professor emeritus from Stanford University who studied the shit out of economics and is good at like, money and stuff.
Seven years after her birth, Kamala’s parents divorced and she split her time between her mother’s house in Berkley, CA, and her father’s house in Palo Alto, CA. Kamala has reported that while spending time at her parents' houses, many of the neighborhood kids weren’t allowed to play with her because she was Black. Kamala Harris grew up in a bi-racial family, her father is Black and her mother is Indian. Growing up she spent time both at church and at the local Hindu temple.
Kamala attended college at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. It was here that she served as president of the Black Law Student’s Association. She earned her J.D. from this institution and was admitted to the California Bar the next year in June of 1990. That same year she was hired as a deputy district attorney in Alameda, California. In the year 2000, Kamala went to bat for juvenile offenders in California. The state wanted to be able to prosecute them in Superior Court and Kamala was like, “Nah, that’s messed up.” She even resigned over the stance in 2000. After leaving Kamala took a job with the San Fransisco District Attorney’s office where she ran the Family and Children’s Services Division.
In 2002 Harris ran for District Attorney of San Fransisco, it’s important for me to note here that she was LEAST known out of all the people running for this position. She ran as an anti-death penalty candidate who would only prosecute three strike laws in the case of violent offenders. She won with 56 percent of the vote, making her the first POC period to be elected San Francisco's District Attorney…that was in 2002, c’mon America, be better!
In 2004 Kamala, along with civil rights activist Lateefah Simon, created the San Fransisco Re-entry program. This was a program to help incarcerated folks adjust to life outside of prison. In six years after the program’s founding, the recidivism rate dropped to less than ten percent! That’s freaking huge! This program (The Back on Track program) was then recognized by the DOJ as a model for re-entry programs nationwide! The DOJ was basically like, “aight y'all, whatever Kamala’s doing, y’all should do that!"
In 2010 Kamala decided she was finna run for Attorney General of the entire state of California. She had the backing of HELLA prominent California officials including Diane Feinstein, Barbara Boxer, and Nancy Pelosi. She won in a landslide and on January 3rd, 2011 she became the first Black Woman, and the first Indian Woman to serve as California Attorney General.
In 2016 Kamala would run for a senate position representing the state of California, I think most of us know how that turned out. She gained the endorsements of both then-president Barack Obama and VP, now current President Joe Biden. Yeah, She won! It was dope. In 2018 she gained national attention after she grilled the hell out of Supreme Court appointee and sexual assailant Brett Kavanaugh. She would also begin a campaign for President. While she didn’t win the primary, she would be picked as Joe Biden’s VP candidate, and they won the election. On January 20th, 2021 she officially became the nation’s first Black Vice President, and first Indian Vice President, and first Woman Vice President, AND is the highest-ranking woman to ever hold office in the history of the United States of America…y'all that a lot!!! I don’t care what your politics are, that is an amazing piece of history right there!
So what is THIS story about? To me, it's the story of a woman who gained every bit of what she wanted out of her career…which, aight cool, that’s a pretty good story. But more than that, I’m a little miffed at the fact that we’re talking about post-2000s era Black firsts! Like, why did it take so long? At some point, we need to start running out of color barrier-breaking stories right? We’re not there yet but holy shit, we should be! This story isn’t full of jokes or hot takes like my usual Black history posts, but that’s because this story stands alone by itself! I’m proud to live in a country where I’m represented by this woman and that’s all I got to say about that! Thank you, Kamala, Thank you!
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