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Kamala Harris
WorldUnited States & Canada

Here’s what Kamala Harris faces as a ‘first’

  • Amid the celebratory memes rocketing around, other women of colour who’ve cracked through ceilings have some advice: buckle up

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Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris. Photo: AP
POLITICO

This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Teresa Wiltz on politico.com on November 8, 2020.

So many firsts. First woman. First black vice-president. First black woman vice-president. First South Asian American. First South Asian American woman. First VP whose parents come from India and Jamaica. First VP who counts Prince and Bootsy and hip hop among her musical loves. First VP who’s a stepmother. First VP to be a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha. First HBCU graduate. First vice-president married to a man …

Kamala Harris, who made her acceptance speech Saturday night in suffragette white, may claim more “first evers” than any other politician sworn into American national office. And another: she’s the first vice-president-elect to do a victory lap to the beat of Mary J. Blige.

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Memes abound.

Within moments of the election being called, corners of the internet erupted with what looked a lot like joy, infused with a sense of long-delayed arrival for huge swathes of Americans. There’s the picture of Harris in profile, decked out in a power suit and power pumps, striding forward … and on the wall behind her, the shadow of a little girl in pigtails, also striding forward, a reference to the iconic Norman Rockwell portrait of civil rights hero Ruby Bridges. There’s the video roll-call of all the previous vice-presidents, a long line of white male faces (and one biracial Native American), finally landing on Harris’s smiling brown face. There’s the tweet from VEEP star Julia Louis-Dreyfus: “Madam Vice President is no longer a fictional character”.
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