Kamala Harris Mama:" I raised them in an African-American community, for a very special reason."

RickyDiBiase

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Shyamala Gopalan Harris died 15 years ago. She’s still the greatest influence in her daughter’s life.​




Shyamala Gopalan Harris did not believe in coddling. Pay her daughters, Kamala and Maya, an allowance for doing chores? “For what? I give you food. I give you rent,” scoffed the woman who would someday launch a million coconut memes. “If you do the dishes, you should get two dollars? You ate from the damn dishes!” Reward the future vice president of the United States—and possible future president—for getting decent grades? Ridiculous. “What does that tell you?” her mother chided as if I had disagreed. (I didn’t.) “It says, ‘You know, I really thought you were stupid. Oh, you surprised Mommy!’ No.

When the breast cancer researcher and single mother had to work in her lab on the weekends, her daughters went with her, like it or not. “I’m not going to get a babysitter,” Dr. Harris laughed between bites of an utterly unmemorable salad at a downtown San Francisco bistro.

It’s been 17 years since I interviewed Kamala Harris’ mother, and 15 years since she died from colon cancer at the age of 70. I met her back in 2007, when I was an editor and writer at San Francisco magazine profiling her daughter—the city’s popular district attorney, who was running for reelection. Kamala was also helping her still-largely-unknown friend, the first-term Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, in his race for president. In a city that churned out political superstars—Pelosi, Feinstein, Newsom, Jerry and Willie Brown—Kamala Harris stood out for all the reasons she has energized previously dispirited Democrats as she hit the campaign trail this summer. She was sharp, empathetic, self-assured, funny. Highly polished but not too slick. The child of immigrants, she looked like the future. Her policies sounded like the future, too, progressive enough for her most liberal constituents but commonsense enough to appeal to the moderates who also wanted to feel safe.


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Shyamala Gopalan HarrisMother Jones illustration; Courtesy Kamala Harris Campaign
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Shyamala Gopalan Harris did not believe in coddling. Pay her daughters, Kamala and Maya, an allowance for doing chores? “For what? I give you food. I give you rent,” scoffed the woman who would someday launch a million coconut memes. “If you do the dishes, you should get two dollars? You ate from the damn dishes!” Reward the future vice president of the United States—and possible future president—for getting decent grades? Ridiculous. “What does that tell you?” her mother chided as if I had disagreed. (I didn’t.) “It says, ‘You know, I really thought you were stupid. Oh, you surprised Mommy!’ No.

When the breast cancer researcher and single mother had to work in her lab on the weekends, her daughters went with her, like it or not. “I’m not going to get a babysitter,” Dr. Harris laughed between bites of an utterly unmemorable salad at a downtown San Francisco bistro.


After the couple’s 1971 divorce, Shyamala and the girls could have settled into one of the area’s vibrant South Asian enclaves. Instead, they gravitated to predominantly Black neighborhoods in Berkeley and Oakland. “I raised them in an African-American community, for a very special reason,” Shyamala told me: racism. “It doesn’t make a damn bit of difference if your color comes from India or African Americans, because this country is racist based on color.” Her children’s Indian identity was secure. Rooting them in the Bay Area’s Black community was an act of pride and protection, connecting them to the civil rights movement’s rich history but also schooling them in “what they need to know…to maneuver [in this country].” She added, “I’m the one who told them to do all that.”

:francis:man....don't get me started
 

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Kamalas come up might be even better than Obamas. For 4 years shes looked like a failure because she was slated to be the next Obama. And in all that time shes never come close to looking presidential. Fast foward shes re-energized the entire Democratic party. Spit in the face of people like cacmamba who doubted her
And shes looking like a star and just as presidential as prime Michelle Obama:wow:

Shes no Barrack Husein Obama,but shes lived up to expectations. Looks like ol Joe Biden was in fact holding her back like I initially stated. Probably sensed the spark on her and decided to hide her away to ensure she wasnt asked to run in 2024 instead of him. And you see what happened to him in turn,God sees everything.


Well,hopefully Raul and Esmerelda show up big at the polls to help her finish her story:respect:
 

Roger king

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This is a woman whose father is black, attended historical black university, joined black sorority, lived in oakland among middle class black folks, the notion she is some type of foreigner was always dubious and playing on grievance. Kamala harris is by any objective metric the best candidate for black women and men this election. We cant afford trump getting back into the whitehouse and appointing another 200 federal judges.
 
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