Actress Sophia Bush posted on Instagram and expressed what many American women felt yesterday when they heard the news that Joe Biden & Kamala Harris were projected to win the U.S. election: "No matter where you fall on our broad political spectrum, this is a monumental moment for us as a country. What a milestone for us to celebrate! It’s about damn time. The First. Madame Vice President. 244 years into our American experiment, you’ve made history. Today, little girls everywhere see it and know they can be it. I am honored to be alive in this moment, to bear witness." (See the Instagram post below)
In a Saturday night nationally-televised speech, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris praised President-elect Joe Biden for having the “audacity to break one of the most substantial barriers” in America: to select a woman as his vice-president. Ms Harris said she “stands on the shoulders” of the trailblazing women who came before her, and all the women and girls who dream. "While I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last," she said in Wilmington, Delaware.
Kamala Harris bursts through several barriers, becoming the first female, first Black and first South Asian vice president-elect. Her mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, an Indian immigrant, was a breast cancer researcher; she died of cancer in 2009. Harris' father, Donald, is a Jamaican American professor of economics.
Kamala Harris attended Howard University, a historically Black university in Washington. She belonged to Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. In 2003, she won her first race for San Francisco district attorney, becoming the first Black woman to hold such an office in California. In 2010, she became the first Black woman elected as California attorney general, and in 2016, she became only the second Black woman ever elected as a US senator. Harris is married to a Jewish white man, making them the first mixed-race couple to occupy their positions. He breaks barriers of his own as he will be America's first "second gentleman."
For many women regardless of political affiliation, this is a moment to reflect on the American Dream as a woman, and daughter of immigrants, has a place in the White House. Harris' own mother put it best: "Kamala, you may be the first to do many things, but make sure you're not the last."