The First But Not the Last

On January 20th 2009, my mother woke me up bright and early to watch the inauguration of President Barack Obama.  “Two little black girls are going to be in the White House, Mariah”. I was eight years old and it was 7am, so these words didn’t hold some deep meaning to me until much later on in my life. My parents were happy, but also anxious for the first black President to take office. The country wasn't nearly as divided as it is today, but the political climate still didn’t seem stable, or tolerant enough for this Presidency. The fact that we had a black President who was able to remain in office for 8 years still, to this day, astonishes me. 

Nearly 11 years later, I’m nineteen years old and I can finally understand the importance and the weight that the Presidency and the Vice Presidency hold for the country. I followed this election so closely that my parents and I were doing the math to see how which states were needed for a Democratic win. CNN was on 24/7 and I always had several tabs of different swing and key states open. It was nerve-wracking and everyone was definitely highly anxious. 

But when it was confirmed that Joe Biden was indeed the President-elect, I could finally breathe, and start focusing on how momentous this win is for the Vice President-elect, Kamala Harris. 

A woman and a POC. And the first ever. It took us 46 tries, but it finally happened. 

Politics aside, the government is supposed to be representative of the peopl, and the people in turn are supposed to see themselves and their values reflected in their government, in their President, and in their Vice President. For four years, I didn’t see that. The division and the polarization, of not just politics but basic policies on race and discrimination, the state of living, and worst of all: the polarization as a result of the pandemic.

I know that having the first African-Indian American woman elected into the Vice Presidency doesn’t just automatically fix those things. But it sure as hell is a good way to start.

The American system isn’t designed for people who look like Kamala Harris to be elected into power: 

The KKK still exists openly.

There are currently sundown towns in southern states.

The previous administration is proof of just how intolerant the system can be. 

So although country isn’t perfect and we can’t just ignore the actions that have been taken by its predecessors, we can be allowed to take a second to breathe and celebrate. Kamala Harris is a symbol, whether she intended to be or not, of healing from the past, and that there exists a future brighter than our present. Little brown girls can look at the Vice President and see that they can one day be in the space of the American government and go so far as the White House. That their skin color and gender don’t have to be barriers to these spaces.

It’s important to have this representation to continuously encourage us to strive to have more representation besides that of the stereotypical elderly white man that we typically see in office. I do know that Joe Biden fits that stereotype, but in choosing Kamala as his running mate, he is part of the change. 

For the first time in a very long while, I’m excited for the United States of America. I’m hopeful that with this historic election and with the new history making Vice-President elect Kamala Harris, the first woman ever and a POC woman at that, we can begin to fix the division that for so long seemed like a permanent American fixture and make some permanent changes to the way we operate and function domestically and internationally.