For the first time in American history, a Black and South Asian woman, Kamala Harris, was elected as a vice president. On inauguration day, she walked in with Doug Emhoff, her husband, with her purple suit on. Born in Oakland, California, she had been elected as a California Attorney General, District Attorney of San Francisco, and United States Senator before accepting Joe Biden’s invitation to work as his partner on August 11, 2020. Growing up, she was certainly influenced by her activist parents. During her career, she spoke out for the immigrants, fought hunger, and even proposed to provide $500 for the working and middle class families each month. Having been a prosecutor, she mentioned that she will use her experience to tackle issues within law enforcement and criminal justice.

Image from The White house https://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/vice-president-harris/

After she started serving as the vice president, Harris has taken part in distributing a $1.9 trillion COVID19 relief package to Americans along with the president. Highlighting the urgency of assisting the citizens to get through the economic crisis during COVID19, Joe Biden proposed a $1,400 direct pay check to the majority of Americans and an additional budget for distribution of vaccines. Harris has been assisting his ambitious plan, meeting with the lawmakers and Republican senators to turn the plans into law by Mid-March. Some doubted that their plan could win the votes, but Biden highlighted that unity is key in order to achieve the goal as a nation.

Her background and exposure to diverse communities in her childhood might add a progressive swing of the democratic party in the U.S. In response to George Flyod and many others’ death in police brutality, Harris and other democrats are working on making it easier to give civil penalties to the officers. Being the ‘first’ in many ways, Harris underlines that she might be the first, but certainly not the last, infusing young girls and people of color in the nation.

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