Antoni Bassas' analysis: 'Kamala Harris and all the women who have preceded us'

A Vice President such as Harris or a Judge such as Sotomayor broaden the scope of possibilities

2 min

When a president is inaugurated everyone knows who the protagonist is, and today all the headlines are for Joe Biden. However, in every blockbuster, along with the main character there are supporting roles, and today a big part of the attention is focused on a woman who will not have to limit herself to being a supporting actress. I'm talking about Kamala Harris, the new vice president of the United States.

The first woman to hold the vice presidency of the country, the first African-American and the first with Asian origins, being the daughter of an Indian mother and a Jamaican father.

"We can be skeptical and state that power swallows anything that might cast a shadow on it, but we can go a little further and admit that a Vice President like Harris broadens the scope of what is historically and socially possible"

Yesterday she was sworn in before the first Hispanic Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor, who was nominated in 2009 by Barack Obama, the first non-white president of the United States. There are many "firsts" in this sentence, and this indicates that society has been changing and that power has been adapting to it. We can remain skeptical and state that power swallows everything that might shadow it and adapts it to domesticate it, but we can go a little further too, and admit that a Vice President like Harris, a Judge like Sotomayor or a president like Obama broaden the scope of what is historically and socially possible.

I'll explain it in other words. In his recent memoirs, Obama explains a crucial moment in his conversation with his wife Michelle on the day he could no longer postpone the big decision of whether or not he wanted to run for president. She, Michelle Obama, was frightened by the damage her husband's political career could do to their marital relationship and to their family, which already had two daughters. Michelle asked him, "Why does it have to be you?", and he replied, "Because the day I raise my right hand to swear in my office, boys and girls like me, with skin colors like mine, from family backgrounds like mine, abandoned by my father, will see that they too have a chance to do things in life". Obama says his wife told him, "That wasn't a bad answer".

Something similar occurs with Kamala Harris. Especially since - and we must be clear about this - Joe Biden is 78 years old, he is the oldest president in history at the time he took office, and the prospect of Harris having to go into the game during halftime cannot be ignored.

Yesterday the new Vice President published this tweet: "I am here today because of the women who came before me", with a series of images of women who had the double courage to stand up to power, a power eternally represented by men. Harris' appreciation of all the women who have preceded her is a sign that she knows where she comes from, or where we come from, and where we can go, especially the youngest, after seeing her raise her right hand yesterday and swear in the office of Vice President of the United States.

Our recognition for those who work on the front lines, a thought for those who suffer, to political prisoners, to exiles, and may we have a good day.