First it was American’s first Black/Mixed race President 12 LONG years ago….
Now the First for the Office of the Vice President of the United States….
And Kamala Harris add’s a blended family that looks a lot like the 21st America….
When Kamala Harris is sworn in as vice president, she will represent many firsts: First female vice president. First Black woman. First woman of Indian descent. But there is another milestone that will be on display: that of her family.
As Ms. Harris ascends to this barrier-breaking role, millions of Americans will see a more expansive version of the American family staring back at them — one that could broaden rigid ideas of politically palatable family dynamics or gender roles.
“It’s striking,” said Ralph Richard Banks, a law professor at Stanford who has written about race, gender and family patterns. “In some ways they are at the frontier of different aspects of American families and how they’re changing.”
Ms. Harris, the daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants, was raised with both Christian and Hindu practices, while her husband, Doug Emhoff, who is white, grew up attending Jewish summer camp.
She was in her 40s when they married, older than the median age of first marriage for women in this country, though that number continues to rise.
Mr. Emhoff was divorced, with two children from his previous marriage, making his children, Cole and Ella, among the one in four who do not live with both biological parents, according to the Census Bureau. Ms. Harris did not have children.
In her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in August, Ms. Harris spoke about her mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, an immigrant who came to California as a teenager and raised Kamala and her sister, Maya, after she and their father divorced. For most of Ms. Harris’s life, it was the three of them. When Maya became pregnant at 17 with her daughter, Meena, it became four….
image…The Forward
Charles Curtis was the first biracial VP, as he was part Native American.
Why do you continue to used the term “mixed”? I cannot recall hearing anyone self-identify as “mixed” – as it sounds like something that comes out of a blender. Usually they call themselves bi-racial, multi-racial, multi-ethnic or something like that. The words you use matters.
Well then Harris is the first Black/Mixed WOMAN Vice President , eh?
I use the term to give respect to BOTH parents as it should be…..
Well yes, if Harris is the first Woman VP, she is also the first black woman VP and also the first woman VP who is older than 30 years old.
You don’t respect people by calling them what some of these people feel is a derogatory term. It is not you or I who decide what is a derogatory term for other people. They get to decide that.
Well Z….
With BOTH Obama and Harris…. Half of their parents get short changed….
And THAT is NOT ‘Right’….
I will NOT continue to do that here….
I knew Kamala’s mother and she was never “short changed” by her children or anyone else.
Her heritage was always celebrated.
James, Try to follow the conversation.
Calling people “mixed” is viewed by some as derogatory. There are better words you could use – such as biracial – that almost no one considers derogatory.
Would someone be showing respect to you if they called you a paddy?
It works BOTH ways guys….
That makes no sense.
I almost never understand his point, and he is not getting any better. And then when I think I understand him, he says something that appears to contradict what I thought he said. Very frustrating.
Yea it does….
People ain’t just one thing….
They come from two and can embrace many different points of view….
It’s actually quite simple …..
Simple?
Oh boy.