Kamala Harris' VP win marks 'powerful, emotional' moment for African American and South Asian American women

Joe Biden won the presidency. His running mate, Kamala Harris, won a place in history: She's the first African American and South Asian American woman to be elected vice president.

Experts and activists from both communities predicted that Harris, the daughter of an Indian mother and Jamaican father, would rally minority voters and keep them engaged in the political process. Since her nomination, Harris has received an outpouring of support from Indian Americans and African Americans.

On the campaign trail, Harris worked to appeal to Black leaders and voters through conversations at barber shops and historically Black colleges and universities. She attended Howard University, an HBCU, and was a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, which mobilized behind her and could be spotted at rallies.

When the news broke, the AKA board of directors was meeting over Zoom and paused to "celebrate and thank God for letting us to live to see this moment," according to International President Dr. Glenda Baskin Glover. Cheers, congratulations, and thanks to God poured out from the group as Glover spoke from Nashville, Tennessee.

"It's a proud moment not just for Alpha Kappa Alpha, not just for the divine nine, it's a proud moment for women around the world, for Black women," Glover said.

Chicago resident Shanya Gray, 38, was upstairs in her bedroom watching TV when the news broke of Biden's win. She screamed, and her two sons – 5 and 10 – ran upstairs with her mother and husband.

“I was jumping up and down, and my family was jumping up and down,” she said.

Gray is originally from Barbados and came to the U.S. for college. Gray, an assistant professor and counselor at a community college, said it gives her “goosebumps to know that there will be a Black woman who is an immigrant, who also has family of West Indian descent,” as vice president.

"You don’t see this very often in this country, and it reminded me of the potential for myself, my family – for little Black girls everywhere who can see for the first time someone who looks like them, who they can aspire to be,” she said.

"This is a powerful, emotional moment for us," said Aimee Allison, founder and president of She The People. "To have a Black woman on the top of the ticket for a party in which we have been largely up until now the unacknowledged, the backbone, the workhorse, the powerhouse vote."

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When she thinks about Harris' win, Allison said, she can't help but think about her own family, including her great-grandmother, who was born at a time when Black people were still enslaved. She said Harris will help usher in a new era.

"I'm really, really proud," she said. "We’re seeing our political hopes and dreams realized."

Quanda Baker, national secretary of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, said Harris' triumph – much like the election of President Barack Obama in 2008 – is something she never thought she'd see in her lifetime. Baker said Harris' election will not only change the way Black women are viewed by others but also how they view themselves.

"Kamala Harris empowers the Black woman, she encourages the Black woman," Baker said. "Little girls of all races, not just Black girls and Black women, will be able to see that the impossible is possible."

Harris has also spoken about her Indian heritage and described her mother as the biggest inspiration during her presidential campaign before she dropped out in December.

Many women of color could relate not only to Harris' personal experiences as the daughter of immigrants and her use of words like "chittis," a Tamil term of endearment, but to the challenges she faced on the campaign like being interrupted by Vice President Mike Pence on the debate stage or having to silence birtherism rumors, said Sayu Bhojwani, founder and president of New American Leaders, New York City’s first commissioner of immigrant affairs and founder of South Asian Youth Action.

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"To watch her overcome that is a win for all of us," she said. "Her election widens the lens for who an American leader can be."

Bhojwani said many progressive South Asians are able to embrace Harris while still recognizing that they differ from her on policy issues and will need to keep pressure on the administration. She also cautioned that Harris' win might not make it easier for her or people like her to become president.

"This country is deeply misogynistic and deeply critical of women of color and particularly Black women," she said. "The road to leadership is just very, very fraught."

Harris' election also coincided with increased early voter turnout from the Asian American community, according to Christine Chen, executive director of APIAVote, a nonpartisan engagement group that works to increase civic engagement among Asian American and Pacific Islanders.

"The struggle has always been in the past that we’re never invited. We’re typically an afterthought," Chen said. "I’m really hoping that with her being there that we’ll always be part of the folks that are also seen as part of the American fabric and part of the solution."

Karthick Ramakrishnan, a political science professor at the University of California-Riverside who runs the AAPI Data survey of Asian American attitudes, pointed out that Harris, one of five Indian American senators, is part of a trend of the community gaining political power and increasing civic participation faster than groups like Chinese and Japanese Americans.

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"Expect to see a lot more Kamalas ... running for office in the future," he said. "Her candidacy and high profile will accelerate that trend of more and more South Asians and specifically Indian Americans running for office, working in public service."

Contributing: Grace Hauck, Courtney Subramanian and Nicholas Wu, USA TODAY; The Associated Press

Follow N'dea Yancey-Bragg on Twitter: @NdeaYanceyBragg

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Kamala Harris VP win is a historic first for Black, Asian women