US Senator Kamala Harris, 55, who became only the second Black woman ever elected to the Senate in 2016, is being seen as the right choice given her high profile status as well given the Black Lives Matter movement has put American squarely in the centre of the race debate going on for decades. But she has her critics from when she was California State Attorney and some of her efforts — especially around punishing truancy — met with criticism from progressives. Her critics argued that she was too cautious in six years as California’s attorney general, and was not a true “progressive” prosecutor. She also came under harsh criticism from the Sikh-American community in California, which called her out on numerous occasions on issues concerning turbaned Sikhs.

By DESIBUZZCanada Staff With News Files

WASHINGTON – While former US national advisor Susan Rice was considered the top choice, Democrat Presidential candidate Joe Biden went with Senator  Kamala Harris as his vice presidential running mate, making her the first Black woman and the first South Asian American to join a major party presidential ticket.

Harris, 55, who became only the second Black woman ever elected to the Senate in 2016, is being seen as the right choice given her high profile status as well given the Black Lives Matter movement has put American squarely in the centre of the race debate going on for decades.

“I have the great honor to announce that I’ve picked Kamala Harris — a fearless fighter for the little guy, and one of the country’s finest public servants — as my running mate,” Biden wrote on Twitter.

He continued, “Back when Kamala was Attorney General, she worked closely with Beau. I watched as they took on the big banks, lifted up working people, and protected women and kids from abuse. I was proud then, and I’m proud now to have her as my partner in this campaign,” reported AP News.

Harris and Biden are set to appear together at an event in Wilmington, Del., on Wednesday.

Harris, the daughter of a Jamaican American father and Indo American mother, worked her way up as a frontline prosecutor in San Francisco. As district attorney, she pitched herself as “smart on crime,” applying a technocratic approach to traditional tough-on-crime policies. 

Some of her efforts — especially around punishing truancy — met with criticism from progressives. Her critics argued that she was too cautious in six years as California’s attorney general, and was not a true “progressive” prosecutor. She also came under harsh criticism from the Sikh-American community in California, which called her out on numerous occasions on issues concerning turbaned Sikhs.

Harris was born on October 20, 1964, in Oakland, California, to a Tamil Indian mother and a Jamaican father. Her mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, was a breast cancer scientist who immigrated to the US from Madras (now Chennai) in 1960. Her father, Donald Harris, is a Stanford University economics professor who emigrated from Jamaica in 1961 for graduate study in economics at the University of California, Berkeley.

Her name, Kamala, comes from the Sanskrit word for the lotus flower. Her family lived in Berkeley, California, where both of her parents attended graduate school. She was extremely close to her maternal grandfather, P. V. Gopalan, an Indian diplomat. As a child, she frequently visited her extended family in the Besant Nagar neighbourhood of Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Harris grew up going to both a black Baptist church and a Hindu temple. She has one younger sister, Maya Harris. They both sang in a Baptist choir.

Harris's parents divorced when she was 7, and her mother was granted custody of the children. After the divorce, her mother moved with the children to Montreal where Shyamala accepted a position doing research at Jewish General Hospital and teaching at McGill University.

After graduating from Montreal's Westmount High School in Québec, Kamala Harris attended Howard University in Washington, D.C., where she majored in political science and economics. At Howard, Harris was elected to the liberal arts student council as a freshman class representative, was a member of the debate team, and joined the Alpha Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.

Harris returned to California, where she earned her Juris Doctor (J.D.) from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, in 1989. She was admitted to the State Bar of California in 1990.

Hollywood was in the Kamala Harris wishing parade with many celebrities sharing their reaction to the news on Twitter, including actor and filmmaker Rob Reiner, who celebrated the fact that Harris is the first Black and South Asian woman to join a presidential ticket for a major party.

“Finally a Presidential ticket that looks like America!!” Reiner wrote. “Now we all go to work to restore the soul of our Nation. VOTE!!!!”

Actress Sarah Paulson and Comedienne Amy Schumer were among the celebrities who used their platforms to shed light on the issue of sexist and racist terminology in news coverage of elections. “The sexist and racist political attacks on @KamalaHarris have already begun,” Paulson and Schumer wrote as part of coordinated messaging from Time’s Up, attaching a petition to sign from the org. “Let’s demand that the media keep these ignorant, bad-faith attacks out of their 2020 election coverage.”

Mia Farrow celebrated Biden’s choice, writing: “They will lead an administration of knowledgeable people we can trust to make the best decisions. No more liars, grifters, simpletons, imbeciles and sycophants.”

Harris is the third woman to be the vice presidential nominee of a major party, following Democrat Geraldine Ferraro in 1984 and Republican Sarah Palin in 2008. She would become the first female vice president if the Democratic ticket wins in November, reported Variety Magazine.