History was made today. No, I am not talking about the oldest president elect being officially nominated today (or, according to Twitter finally ridding America of Donald J. Trump). I am talking about Kamala Harris becoming not only the first female vice president elect ever, but also being the first woman of color to hold such a prestigious office.
So, what is truly the significance of this? Why does having an African American female vice president matter (given it is 2020 and this should have happened about 20 years ago)?
It isn’t a secret that America is not the most progressive nation in the world when it comes to diversity or women’s rights. Despite major steps for women being made in the early 1900’s (the right to vote) and the 1970s with the ERA movement and major feminists like Betty Friedan pushing legislation through for legalization of oral contraceptives, we have not really seen much progress since. We nearly had our very first female president in 2016 with Hilary Clinton narrowly missing out on the presidential race, but to be honest, that is a far cry from where European nations are as far as females in charge or in high elect offices goes.
So why does having Kamala Harris elected matter? Well, if you are a women there are several issues that are very pressing that can finally get resolved with not only a Democrat becoming president but also a woman of color in the VP role. Obviously a major issue that is still rattling the Supreme Court is the issue of a woman’s right to choose (i.e. prochoice vs pro-life). There have been numerous cases brought up through state and district courts regarding whether it is legal for a woman to pursue an abortion, when they can terminate pregnancy legally, and what counseling is necessary, if any, to not have legal action brought against the mother.
As a former District Attorney for the San Francisco area, Kamala Harris is primed to push forward with a prochoice agenda. Despite several conservative states trying to delegitimize abortion, the Supreme Courts, despite being conservative led, have majorly upheld Roe v. Wade. Given her prodigious background as a lawyer, Harris is in a prime position to bolster a woman’s right to choose and to other options like oral contraceptives, which has also been a huge contestation point amongst conservative employers.
Secondly, with Harris being elected, we have seen an influx of not only women to positions of power in congress and the US government in general, but women of color moving up the rankings. This is huge because minorities like African Americans, Native Americans, Indian Americans, and Hispanic Americans have been largely underrepresented historically. This brings to light major issues that plagued the Trump administration, like the border wall and how to go about amnesty for refugees or even the whole process of citizenship.
It was rather apparent that the Trump administration’s take on immigrants was less than favorable. So having a second generation immigrant vice president can really help extend rights to illegal and legal immigrants, granting them easier access to citizenship and major US rights that have been denied to them in the past. We can finally eliminate ICE and separation of families at the borders, clean up the border wall, and expedite the process for amnesty seeking individuals to safely occupy US soil.
Another major win is for the LGBTQ+ community. With a more liberal agenda, we may finally see LGBTQ+ rights be extended to other states and given more protection. For decades, gays have fought to get the right marry, which is obviously the largest item on the agenda. Along with rights to marry come other rights to partners assets, wills, power of attorney, adoption, etc. that have long been denied to the rainbow community. We have also seen a large rise in violence against the transgender community. A large victim of this violence has been African American transgender people. We may finally see some of these crimes be categorized as hate crimes, as they justly should be versus lesser violations.
Finally, BLM has been a huge impetus to get a blue wave to sweep America this election year. As a woman of color, Harris is poised to protect minority rights, implement police reform, and restructure our judicial system for hate crimes and crimes against minorities. More severe crimes may finally, and justly, be charged to officers responsible for the deaths of the like of Breonna Taylor, Treyvon Martin, George Floyd, and others that died unjustly and prematurely.
Harris is paving the way not only for women, but for minorities in government. She has been bolstered and supported with other minority women rising to power too, like AOC, Ihlan Omar, Cori Bush, etc. We may finally live up to our American identity of a land of the free with this fateful choice. We may finally see equality extend to all, not just Caucasians and the privileged. This historic choice is set to have positive ramifications that will echo down the decades.