Kamala Harris

A Role Model to Women and Girls Across this Country

Happy Wednesday, Golden Divas!

Ladies, I’m bringing you some more ‘Black Girl Magic’ from Club Fifty. I’m sending a shout out to my beautiful mother Everlean; today is her 81st birthday. Happy Birthday, Mom! Divas, if you didn’t hear former First Lady Michelle Obama’s speech Monday night at the Democratic National Convention, you need to check it out. She rips President Trump in her speech with some ‘cold hard truth’ in a searing DNC keynote speech. Obama said her most important point was…

“If you think things cannot possibly worsen, trust me, they can; and they will if we don’t make a change.”

Now the key player of this week’s ‘Circle of Sisterhood’ at Club Fifty is an inspiration to all women and the face of change for America. This beauty is going straight to the Whitehouse as the nation’s first Black Vice-President. Let’s speak it in Jesus’ Name.

Former vice president, Joe Biden, the presumptive nominee for President of the United States, announced that he had selected Senator Kamala Harris of California as his running mate on August 11, 2020. Biden’s history-making vice presidential pick for the 2020 election, comes from a family of immigrants whose roots and political views profoundly shaped her. Biden and Harris will both be formally nominated at the 2020 Democratic National Convention.

Golden Divas, we have so much to be proud of as women of color, however, can we pronounce our vice president candidate name? Kamala Harris is a conversation within itself and confuses so many people on how to pronounce it correctly. Sen. Kamala Harris is no stranger to people mispronouncing her name. So when Harris, the newly announced vice presidential pick of the 2020 Democratic ticket, was running for the US Senate in 2016, she posted a campaign video that showed kids explaining how to pronounce her first name correctly.

“It’s not CAM-EL-UH. It’s not KUH-MAHL-UH. It’s not KARMEL-UH,” the kids said in the video. Each incorrect variation was spelled out and crossed off on screen.

The children will lead us. Here is an easy way to help you so you can pronounce it correctly with no confusion.

Kamala is pronounced ‘COMMA-LA,‘ like the punctuation mark,” according to the California senator. Her name means ‘lotus flower,’ which is a symbol of significance in Indian culture. A lotus grows underwater, its flower rising above the surface while its roots are planted firmly in the river bottom.”

However, there is no confusion that Kamala is the right person for the position, right next to Joe Biden as the nation’s vice president. Yes, I am claiming it!!

You can catch this ‘Golden Diva’ tonight on the 2020 Democratic National Convention, where the Democratic Party will formally nominate Kamala Harris. This will be Kamala’s first real introduction as the vice president’s choice. Until then, you can read a little about this dynamic woman, who is making history!

Here are some noted facts about Kamala Harris’s life that I am sharing with you from other sources.

“My mother taught us the importance of a good education. ⁣She taught us the good old-fashioned value of hard work. ⁣She taught us don’t let anyone tell you who you are. You tell them who you are. ⁣She taught us not only to dream but to do. ⁣She taught us to believe in our power to right what is wrong.” 

Kamala Devi Harris, (born October 20, 1964, Oakland, California, from immigrant parents. Her father, who was Jamaican, taught at Stanford University, and her mother, the daughter of an Indian diplomat, was a cancer researcher. Her younger sister, Maya, later became a public policy advocate. After studying political science and economics (BA, 1986) at Howard University, Kamala earned a law degree (1989) from Hastings College.

Voters know Kamala Harris as the US Senator for California and, most recently, as a former presidential candidate. But tonight, Harris will get to reintroduce herself as Biden’s potential second-in-command.

Harris is the first Black woman and Asian American person to be on a major party’s ticket for vice president, will detail to Americans why she was the best choice for Biden’s running mate and why their ticket is the best choice for America. She was named to the ticket last week and made a short speech one day later.

In 2017, Kamala D. Harris was sworn in as a United States Senator for California, the second African-American woman and first South Asian-American senator in history. She serves on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the Select Committee on Intelligence, the Committee on the Judiciary, and the Committee on the Budget. Kamala has spent her life-fighting injustice. It’s a passion that was first inspired by her mother, Shyamala, an Indian-American immigrant, activist, and breast cancer researcher.

Growing up in Oakland, Kamala had a stroller-eye view of the Civil Rights movement. Through the example of courageous leaders like Thurgood Marshall, Constance Baker Motley, and Charles Hamilton Houston, Kamala learned the kind of character it requires to stand up to the powerful and resolved to spend her life advocating for those who could not defend themselves.

“I’m the daughter of a mother who broke down all kinds of barriers. Shyamala Harris was no more than five feet tall, but if you ever met her, you would think she was seven feet tall. She had such spirit and tenacity, and I’m thankful every day to have been raised by her. “

After earning an undergraduate degree from Howard University and a law degree from the University of California, Hastings, she began her career in the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office.

In 2003, Kamala became the District Attorney of the City and County of San Francisco. Among her achievements as District Attorney, Harris started a program that gives first-time drug offenders the chance to earn a high school diploma and find employment.

Having completed two terms as the District Attorney of San Francisco, Kamala was elected as the first African-American and first woman to serve as California’s Attorney General. In this role, she worked tirelessly to hold corporations accountable and protect the state’s most vulnerable people.

Throughout her nearly two terms in office, Kamala won a $25-billion settlement for California homeowners hit by the foreclosure crisis, defended California’s landmark climate change law, protected the Affordable Care Act, helped win marriage equality for all Californians, and prosecuted transnational gangs that trafficked in guns, drugs, and human beings.

In the United States Senate, Kamala’s mission remains unchanged: fighting for the rights of all communities in California. Since taking office, she has introduced and cosponsored legislation to raise wages for working people, reform our broken criminal justice system, make healthcare a right for all Americans, address the epidemic of substance abuse, support veterans and military families, and expand access to childcare for working parents.

It’s the privilege of Kamala’s life to work on behalf of the people of California. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Doug Emhoff, and is stepmother to Ella and Cole Emhoff.

Sources:
https://www.harris.senate.gov/about
https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/12/politics/kamala-harris-pronunciation/index.html