Beyond Politics: Who Is Kamala Harris? (Spoiler Alert)

The 2020 U.S. presidential election is right around the corner. And frankly, there is a part of me who could care less. 

I’ve always been a free thinker, stubbornly refusing to get entangled in the whims of who’s in office. I am neither Republican nor Democrat. Haven’t voted in over a decade. 

Yet, this year feels a little different as I believe we are on the brink of one of the most transformative times in our nation’s history. So I want to ensure that I’m heading into the remainder of 2020 with my eyes wide amid the seismic social and economic shifts unfolding and taking shape. 

Honestly, our political leaders nauseate me. I believe that the vast majority of them are simply out for themselves. Sadly, many of us, the American people, support them without even a hair’s worth of understanding about who they are at their core. 

In recent weeks, I have become quite curious about Kamala Harris, Joe Biden’s Vice-Presidential running mate. As you’ve probably heard that Harris made history by becoming the first Black woman and Indian American picked to run for V.P. on a major party ticket. 

Curious to learn more about Harris, I picked up her recent book, a memoir of sorts, entitled The Truths We Hold: An American Journey. I read it with rapt attention, completing it in record time. 

In it, she offers a fascinating account of her life story, replete with a number of stories I found to be very relatable to my upbringing. 

That is, until around Chapter 5 when she launches into her public policy views-- an obvious attempt to tout her accomplishments and political aspirations. But because that’s what all aspiring political leaders feel that they need to do in a tell-all book, I let her slide. 

In the end, I just wanted to learn more about her life story and how it’s influenced the person she is today. Here’s what I uncovered: 

Her Parents

In the early chapters of her book, Harris talked at great length about the influence of her parents. Her father, Donald Harris, was born in Jamaica in 1938. As Kamala recounts in one of the book’s early chapters:

“He was a brilliant student who immigrated to the United States after being admitted to the University of California at Berkeley. He went there to study economics and would go on to teach economics at Stanford, where he remains a professor emeritus.” 

Her mother’s life has its roots in India according to Harris: 

“Shyamala Gopalan was the oldest of four children—three girls and a boy. Like my father, she was a gifted student, and when she showed a passion for science, her parents encouraged and supported her. She graduated from the University of Delhi at nineteen. And she didn’t stop there. She applied to a graduate program at Berkeley, a university she’d never seen, in a country she’d never visited.”

Harris notes that her mom was “a teenager when she left home for Berkeley in 1958 to pursue a doctorate in nutrition and endocrinology.”  This was the start of her journey to becoming a breast cancer researcher. 

Her Upbringing and Formative Years 

Harris talks affectionately about her early years where she was raised primarily in the Bay Area. She also lived for a brief time in Montreal, Canada --the latter the result of her mom accepting a position at McGill University. As she notes in the book, her fondest memory was of the music emanating throughout the house while she was a kid: 

“My mother loved to sing along to gospel—from Aretha Franklin’s early work to the Edwin Hawkins Singers. She had won an award in India for her singing, and I loved hearing that voice. My father cared about music just as much as my mother. He had an extensive jazz collection, so many albums that they filled all the shelving against one of the walls. Every night, I would fall asleep to the sounds of Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, or Miles Davis.” 

She says in the book that the kitchen was the official gathering place for many family conversations. 

“Most of our conversations took place in the kitchen. Cooking and eating were among the things our family most often did together.”

She says that when she and her sister Maya were kids, their mother sometimes had a tradition called a “smorgasbord” for many family dinners. It was years later when Harris says she recognized that “smorgasbord” really just meant “leftovers”. 

My mother had a way of making even the ordinary seem exciting.”

Amid the special memories, Harris also talked about the growing rift between her two parents which ultimately resulted in divorce. 

“By the time I was five years old, the bond between them had given way under the weight of incompatibility. They separated shortly after my dad took a job at the University of Wisconsin, and divorced a few years later. They didn’t fight about money. The only thing they fought about was who got the books.” 

Her Education

With the acceptance of her V.P. nomination, Harris now has the distinction of being the first graduate of historically Black college or university (HBCU) to run on a major presidential party ticket. In the book, she talks with great pride about the impact that Howard University had on her life, which included membership in Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, a century-old organization of Black women with a record of high political and social achievement. 

It was special for me to read this as my own mother was a graduate of Virginia Union University in Richmond, Virginia, an HBCU, that my grandfather helped build. My mom was a greek sister through the Black sorority Delta Sigma Theta which like Harris held great meaning to her.

Her Marriage

This was hands down the most fascinating part of Harris’ book. Her husband, Doug Emhoff, happens to be a prominent Jewish, entertainment law attorney in Los Angeles.  

Harris’s story version of how their relationship came to be was priceless. As she recounts in the book, it all started with her best friend Chrisette blowing up her phone one day while she was in the middle of a meeting. Worried that something bad had happened she stepped outside of the room and called her back. That’s when her friend responded: 

“I just met this guy. He’s cute and he’s the managing partner of his law firm and I think you’re going to really like him. He’s based in Los Angeles, but you’re always here for work anyway. His name is Doug Emhoff, but promise me you won’t Google him. Don’t overthink it. Just meet him. I already gave him your number. He’s going to reach out.”

Without revealing all of the juicy details, let me offer this: I’ve never read a more romantic love story. EVER!  But I’ll leave that for you to decide once you pick up the book. 

The Next Chapter

So here’s what I’d like to leave you with. At this vitally important time in our nation’s future, it’s important for us to become more informed citizens in terms of who we are electing into office. And for me, that begins with taking a deeper look at someone like Kamala Harris -- who she is, who she’s not, and what she is aspiring to achieve during her time in office. Here’s a principle I try to always adhere to when sizing people up people, which goes as follows:

“If you are listening and observing closely, people reveal to you exactly who they are. When they hand it right to you, it now becomes a question of whether you are going to accept it or not.”

Over the years whether it be dating, interviewing job candidates, or even folks pretending to be my friend, I have found this to be the case. 

Biographical books are just one way to begin to peel back the layers of who a person is and what they stand for. Read thoughtfully, they allow us the opportunity to gather a more informed perspective, leading to better decisions. 

In the end, this is what Kamala Harris’ book offers - a glimpse of who she is and what she hopes to deliver to this great nation if elected.