|
The struggle to get president-elect
Joe Biden to the finish line first with 270 Electoral College votes
was unquestionably an epic battle.
However,
Joe’s battle wasn’t a century-long one like women finally winning
the right to vote in 1920 with the 19th Amendment, hoping a female
would one day be elected to one of the highest offices in government.
The fact that vice president-elect Kamala Harris broke through the 18
million cracks in the glass ceiling in 2020 is both exciting and
inexcusable.
The
exciting news, which came Saturday afternoon, announcing Harris as
the country’s next V.P., had some of my sister-friends verklempt,
struggling to contain their tears, as many of us saw with CNN
commentator Van Jones. Others of us gathered to celebrate and shout
“Mamala in the house!” and” Madame Vice President” as we
drank too much Jamaican rum punch and danced socially distanced to
the Reggae sounds of Jimmy Cliff and Bob Marley and the Wailers,
honoring the Jamaican part of Harris’s heritage.
Harris’s
ascension to the vice presidency, sadly, represents several
underrepresented demographic groups in U.S. politics. In other words,
Harris represents many firsts: woman, black, Indian American, child
of immigrants, HBCU graduate, and if there are more, forgive me.
The
first time a woman was nominated by a major national party to run for
one of our government’s top spots was the vice president’s
office. In 1984, Queens Rep. Geraldine Ferraro was Water Mondale’s
running mate, the then-Democratic presidential hopeful. The daughter
of Italian immigrants, Ferraro, like Harris, represented many firsts:
woman, Italian-American, and feminist. “We’ve come too far on the
path to equality, we can’t let them turn us around now,” is one
of Ferraro’s famous quotes. Reflecting on Harris’s win and her
mother’s struggles with blatant sexism during her run for the V.P.
spot, Donna Zaccaro, Ferraro’s daughter, who in 2013 produced the
documentary “Geraldine Ferraro: Paving The Way,” shared her
thoughts with NY1:
“I
do see it as a continuation of my mother’s legacy. Even though in
that campaign she lost and in a landslide…how she conducted herself
during that campaign proved that a woman could be VP of the U.S. Or
even president... This time around, Kamala Harris - her credentials
weren’t even questioned.”
Twenty-four
years would elapse before the next woman was nominated to run as a
V.P. candidate, former Alaska governor Sarah Palin in 2008. Palin ran
on the Republican ticket with then-presidential hopeful Arizona
Senator John McCain. Palin was the first Republican nominee and
second female. I surmise there is some consolation to knowing that
the time between Palin and Harris running for V.P. took half the time
between Ferraro and Palin - 12 years. Elated to see a woman finally
win the V.P. spot, Palin in an Instagram post, gave a shout out
conveying her good wishes to Harris:
Congrats to the democrat V.P. pick.
Climb upon Geraldine Ferraro’s and my shoulders, and from the most
amazing view in your life consider lessons we learned… and “don’t
forget the women who came before you.”
The
woman who paved the way for women and other underrepresented
demographic groups in U.S. politics to step into the political arena
was Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm. I grew up knowing Chisholm. We
kids called her Mrs. C. Chisholm. She represented my Brooklyn
Congressional District for seven terms from 1969-1983. She was known
throughout the neighborhood and the halls of power in NYC as a force
to be reckoned with who was “unbought” and” unbossed,” also
the title of her 1970 memoir.
In
1972, Chisholm was the first female and person of color to run for
president, and on the Democratic ticket, paving the way for others.
In her 1973 book, “The Good Fight,” Chisholm shared why she ran.
I ran for the presidency, despite
hopeless odds, to demonstrate the sheer will and refusal to accept
the status quo, The next time a woman runs, or a black, or a Jew or
anyone from a group that the country is “not ready” to elect to
its highest office, I believe that he or she will be taken seriously
from the start…. I ran because somebody had to do it first.
Black
women have paved the way for women and other underrepresented
demographic groups in U.S. politics, too. As a voting bloc, we are
the DNC’s strength, and we know the paths we’ve paved for others.
We take pride in our agency and voting-mobilization strategies to
help candidates like Barack Obama and now a Biden/Harris team to get
to the finish line. And we celebrate these achievements.
This
2020 presidential race has been an epic battle to win back our
multicultural democracy. This weekend my sister-friends and I will
gather again to celebrate, this time for Diwali, an Indian festival
of lights, symbolizing the triumph of light over darkness. It’s a
timely celebration to embrace the new direction the country will be
going in, and to honor the Indian part of Harris’s heritage, too.
|
