6 things Kamala Harris has shared about her heritage

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https://www.today.com/popculture/news/kamala-harris-nationality-rcna162749

6 things Kamala Harris has shared about her heritage
Learn about the vice president’s racial and cultural identity in her own words.

July 21, 2024, 6:00 AM CDT / Updated July 21, 2024, 3:43 PM CDT
By Ree Hines

When Kamala Harris was sworn in as the vice president of the United States on January 20, 2021, it marked many firsts.

Not only did she become the first woman to ever take on the second-highest office in the land, but as a child of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, she was also the first Black and first South Asian American to do so.


And now, after receiving a 2024 democratic nominee endorsement by President Biden, who announced his decision to drop out of the presidential race on July 21, Harris is once again in line to make history as the first Black and Asian American woman ever to lead a major party ticket.


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As for being Black, she put it plainly: “I’m Black, and I’m proud of being Black. I was born Black. I will die Black, and I’m not going to make excuses for anybody because they don’t understand.”




.......................In the 1980s, Harris attended Howard University in Washington, D.C., and she found that the experience of going to historically Black colleges and universities proved particularly important when it came to feeling connected to community.


.........................Harris’ mother and father divorced when she was 7 years old. Living with her mother from that point on, she felt inspired to follow her mother’s lead in life.

“She was a brown woman. She was a woman with a heavy accent. She was a woman who, many times, people would overlook her, or not take her seriously, or because of her accent, assume things about her intelligence,” Harris said of her mother during her 2020 presidential campaign.

“Now, every time my mother proved them wrong. And because of who my mother was and what she believed, what she had the ability to dream was possible, and then worked to make possible. The fact that my mother never asked anyone permission to tell her what was possible, is why — within one generation — I stand here as a serious candidate for president of the United States.”













https://media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com/image/upload/t_fit-560w,f_avif,q_auto:eco,dpr_2/rockcms/2024-07/kamala-harris-sworn-in-mc-240719-4f3f8c.jpg
Kamala Harris is sworn in as U.S. vice president as her husband, Doug Emhoff, looks on during the inauguration of U.S. President-elect Joe Biden on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol on January 20, 2021, in Washington, D.C. Alex Wong / Getty Images