If Kamala Harris is elected, what would having the first Asian American president of the United States mean to that community?
Her election would be a source of pride as someone who would have cracked the bamboo or glass ceiling for Asian Americans.
“Indians in general are exuberant simply because as soon as they see a Brown person in American politics in any way, they jump on the bandwagon,” said Dhanya Ramanan, 15, to the San Francisco Chronicle. “While I’m excited she’s Indian, I’m also excited that she’s African American. African Americans have been an integral part of this country much longer than Indians have.”
10 percent of Americans identify as multi-racial, according to NPR. Harris’ identity as an Indian American and Black woman raised by an Indian American mother and Jamaican father resonates with many of them.
“Growing up, especially in a predominantly White environment or like just any environment, for some reason, I felt like people couldn’t grasp the fact that I was both South Indian and black,” said Jaya Krishnan, 23.
Now there’s someone from the same background in the national spotlight and that means something.
Bei Leong-Hong chairs the Democratic National Committee’s AAPI caucus, is not multiracial. But if Harris ascends to the presidency, it will be a life dream realized.
“When she came to visit me at the last in-person DNC meeting in San Francisco in 2019, I told her that in my lifetime, I wanted to see an Asian American president,” said Ms Leong-Hong.
“This year, that prayer is going to come true,” the Strait Times reported Leong-Hong saying.
Harris, for her part, has down played her racial identity and gender and has focused on the issues and her qualifications.
The Vice President says she will bring a policy agenda she believes would advance the interests of Asian Americans and all Americans.
The Vice President released her plan in multiple languages including English last week as well as in simplified and traditional Chinese, Tagalog, Korean, Hindi and Urdu.
She has made the return of Roe V Wade as the rule of law a priority of her campaign. Former President Donald Trump appointed most of the Supreme Court justices who overturned the decades old decision but says he won’t impose a federal ban on abortion but let each of the states decide.
The Biden Harris administration has been criticized by Trump and the GOP for being late to crack down on the surge of undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers across the Mexican border.
Harris says she supports a pathway of citizenship for dreamers and criticizes Trump for sabotaging a compromise immigration plan that Republican leadership had agreed to support.
Trump blames immigrants for the fentanyl crisis and being lawbreakers. There is no data to support that claim. He also says he will conduct mass deportations of undocumented immigrants and plans to use a decades-old law that led to the unconstitutional incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II.
He also opposes birthright citizenship, a law that makes anyone born in the U.S. an American citizen.
Harris calls her plan for the economy one that will put the middle class first. Trumps blames the Biden-Harris administration for what he considers a bad economy.
Check out our top 5 articles on Kamala Harris:
- AAPI Women See Themselves in Kamala Harris
- Kamala Harris hosts an AANHPI Heritage market at her home
- Kamala Harris vows to lift up Asian small businesses
- Kamala Harris’ Career Choice Inspired by Civil Rights Giants
- Kamala Harris reinforces commitment to AANHPI communities
AsAmNews is published by the non-profit, Asian American Media Inc.
We are supported through donations and such charitable organizations as the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. All donations are tax deductible and can be made here.
Please purchase your tickets to our fundraiser Up Close with Connie Chung, America’s first Asian American to anchor a nightly network newscast. The in-depth conversation with Connie will be held November 14 at 7:30 at Columbia University’s Milbank Chapel in the Teacher’s College. All proceeds benefit AsAmNews.
