Though more than a decade has passed since Kamala Harris' mother, Shyamala Gopalan, died, she remains a force in her daughter’s life as she takes a historic spot on the Democratic ticket besides former Vice President Joe Biden.
This 2007 photo provided by the Kamala Harris campaign shows her with her mother, Shyamala, at a Chinese New Year parade.
Harris’ parents met as doctoral students at the University of California, Berkeley, at the dawn of the 1960s. Her father, a Jamaican named Donald Harris, came to study economics. Her mother studied nutrition and endocrinology. “I was in awe of the knowledge that they seemed to demonstrate,” said Labrie, who grew so close to the family that the senator calls him “Uncle Aubrey.”
“She would take the girls and they would pull out their little backpacks and they would be in that environment,” said McGaffie. As a kindergartner, Stacey Johnson-Batiste remembers Harris coming to her aid when a classroom bully grabbed her craft project and threw it to the floor, which brought retaliation from the boy. He hit the future politician in the head with something that caused enough bleeding to necessitate a hospital visit, cementing for Johnson-Batiste a lifelong friendship with Harris and a view of her as a woman who embodies the ethics of her mother.
“She always talked about her mother,” Dew Steele said. “When she was alive she was a force, and since she’s passed away she’s still a force.” “I knew part of making change was what I’d seen all my life, surrounded by adults shouting and marching and demanding justice from the outside. But I also knew there was an important role on the inside,” she wrote in “The Truths We Hold.”
Gopalan Harris defied generations of tradition by not returning to southern India after getting her doctorate, tossing aside expectations of an arranged marriage. Her daughter portrays her mother’s spirit of activism as being in her blood. Gopalan Harris’ mother took in victims of domestic abuse and educated women about contraception. Her father was active in India’s independence movement and became a diplomat.
At campaign events, Simon would watch Gopalan Harris, always in the front row, always beaming with pride. She saw how both mother and daughter were meticulous about tiny details, how they were hard workers but maintained a sense of joy in the labors, how their laugh would echo in the room. It’s an influence that far outweighed that of Harris’ father. He and her mother separated when she was 5 before ultimately divorcing. She writes of seeing him on weekends and over summers after he became a professor at Stanford University.
Deutschland Neuesten Nachrichten, Deutschland Schlagzeilen
Similar News:Sie können auch ähnliche Nachrichten wie diese lesen, die wir aus anderen Nachrichtenquellen gesammelt haben.
‘Extraordinarily nasty’: Trump hurls one of his favorite insults at a new target in Kamala HarrisThe resonance of Trump’s “nasty” adjective is often different when the recipient is a woman — and different still when that woman is a person of color.
Weiterlesen »
Bond star Naomie Harris backs new Extinction Rebellion climate change filmBritish actress Naomie Harris and musician Brian Eno have teamed up to produce a short film backing calls for urgent action to slow climate change, in support of civil disobedience campaign Extinction Rebellion.
Weiterlesen »
Your Guide to the VP Debate Between Kamala Harris and Mike PenceIt's going to be a must-watch.
Weiterlesen »
Biden and Harris to make first appearance as historic Democratic ticketThe campaign says Biden and Harris will deliver remarks on 'working together to restore the soul of the nation and fight for working families to move the country forward.'
Weiterlesen »
Here's what Kamala Harris brings to Joe Biden's campaign for presidentAs a Black and Indian American woman raised by immigrant parents west of the Mississippi, Kamala Harris’ background resonates with huge swaths of the country. Here's what she brings to Joe Biden's campaign for president.
Weiterlesen »