Commentary
Opinion: V.P. Harris’s Soaring DNC Speech Was Inspired by Her Mom
The Democratic National Convention (DNC) had rhetorical flourishes that still resonate. If you’ve ever been underestimated, ignored, or made to feel invisible by others who assumed their superiority over you, Vice President Kamala Harris’s DNC acceptance speech was you. The message was clear: Kamala Harris is qualified and ready to lead America.
By Emil Guillermo
The Democratic National Convention (DNC) had rhetorical flourishes that still resonate.
If you’ve ever been underestimated, ignored, or made to feel invisible by others who assumed their superiority over you, Vice President Kamala Harris’s DNC acceptance speech was you.
The message was clear: Kamala Harris is qualified and ready to lead America.
Her dad taught her to be fearless but Harris said it was her mom who told her to never do anything “half-assed.”
Great advice for Harris as she engages in the run of her life, the fight for America’s democracy.
In her speech, Harris let people know exactly how she feels as a biracial woman; her love for America; and her passion for service.
“That here in this country, anything is possible, that nothing is out of reach in an America where we care for one another, look out for one another, and recognize that we have so much more in common than what separates us,” Harris said.
It was a unifying speech.
Harris, as a multiracial person in a diverse new America, also showed us how maybe we all should talk about race and ethnicity at a time in our history where minorities will soon be the majority.
So how should we talk about race?
You don’t billboard it. You let the obvious stand, and you show people who and what you are by your actions. Let them make all the assumptions they want. When you live your life authentically — true to who you are — others will see that our similarities are greater than our differences.
For Harris, it was the story of her mother, the late Shyamala Gopalan Harris.
“My mother was 19 when she crossed the world alone, traveling from India to California with an unshakeable dream to be the scientist to cure breast cancer,” Harris said. “When she finished school, she was supposed to return home to a traditional arranged marriage but as fate would have it, she met my father, Donald Harris, a student from Jamaica. They fell in love and got married, and that act of self-determination made my sister Maya and me.”
“My mother was a brilliant, five-foot-tall brown woman with an accent,” Harris said. “But my mother never lost her cool. She was tough, courageous, a trailblazer in the fight for women’s health.”
By her actions, she provided the lesson.
“She taught us to never complain about injustice, but do something about it,” she said. “That was my mother.”
Her mom’s story is the heart and soul of Harris. And it informed the real function of the night’s speech, her formal acceptance of her important new role: “And so on behalf of the people, on behalf of every American, regardless of party, race, gender, or the language a grandmother speaks, on behalf of my mother and everyone who has ever set out on their own unlikely journey on behalf of Americans like the people I grew up with, people who work hard, chase their dreams and look out for one another, on behalf of everyone whose story could only be written in the greatest nation on Earth, I accept your nomination.”
About the Author
Emil Guillermo is a journalist and commentator. See his mini-talkshow: YouTube.com/@emilamok1. Contact: www.amok.com
