Major Asian, Black, Latino groups come out in support of a Harris presidency

(WASHINGTON) — Kamala Harris made history in 2020 as the first Black, Asian, and female vice president. Now that President Joe Biden has stepped down from the 2024 presidential race, Harris has become his top potential successor in what is already set to be a historic election.

Harris, the daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants, has already garnered the endorsement of major political action committees and advocacy groups representing Asian, Pacific Islander, Black and Latino voters.

Endorsements flood in

In a statement, the AAPI Victory Fund called Harris the “best choice to win this November.”

“We will fight with all of our might to make her the first South Asian and Black woman ever to serve as president of the United States,” said Shekar Narasimhan, the fund’s chairman and founder, and Joe Nguyễn, president and CEO.

The Black Women Organized for Political Action (BWOPA) told ABC News that Harris “represents the epitome of resilience, leadership and historic achievement.”

“Vice President Harris’ journey mirrors the struggles and triumphs of countless women of color who have navigated systemic barriers to ascend to positions of influence,” the statement continued. “Her leadership and dedication to justice, equality and representation are aligned with BWOPA’s mission to empower Black women and promote political engagement.”

Latino Victory Board Chairman Luis A. Miranda, Jr. called Biden’s decision to step down “selfless” and said they “previously endorsed Vice President Harris for VP, and we look forward to continue working closely with her to ensure Latino voices are reflected in government, and that our issues continue to be prioritized in the 2024 presidential campaign.”

Women’s groups also chimed in amid the wave of endorsements:

“In this historic moment for our country, we have the opportunity to not only elect a proven, qualified leader who is ready on Day One to fight for families and hold those in power accountable — but also to elect the first-ever woman president,” said Fatima Goss Graves, president of the National Women’s Law Center Action Fund, in a statement.

Harris’ intersectionality

Harris’ mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, immigrated to the U.S. in 1958 for postgraduate studies at the age of 19 and married Jamaican immigrant Donald Harris six years later. Gopalan Harris raised the vice president and her sister herself following a divorce from Donald Harris in 1971.

“As many of you may know, my mother arrived in the United States from India when she was 19 years old, by herself, never having been to America. My mother had two goals in her life: to raise her two daughters — my sister, Maya, and me — and to end breast cancer,” said Harris at an AAPI celebration in May. “My mother never asked anyone’s permission to pursue her dreams. And it is because of her character, strength and determination that within one generation I stand before you as vice president of the United States.”

Harris has long embraced the two sides of her heritage — highlighted in her recollections of attending a historically Black university, weaving Hindu traditions into her wedding ceremony, joining both the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus and Congressional Black Caucus, and more.

Still, Harris has been criticized by some South Asian and Black voters who believe she has uplifted one identity more than the other. Others argue she has not advocated for her communities enough, in some cases saying they felt “neglected.”

In a 2020 op-ed written by Sadanand Dhume for the Wall Street Journal, the author accuses Harris of failing to highlight some details about where her family is from because of political conflicts.

“In her book, Ms. Harris airbrushes her mother’s community from her story. The words Tamil and Brahmin don’t appear at all. At one point the senator mentions that Gopalan won an award for her singing in India, but not that it was for Carnatic music, a classical art form closely associated with Tamil Brahmins,” Dhume writes.

When asked about critics who question the “legitimacy” of her Blackness in an interview on the Breakfast Club, Harris responded: “If you walked on Hampton’s campus or Howard’s campus or Morehouse or Spelman or Fisk, you would have a much better appreciation for the diaspora, for the diversity, for the beauty in the diversity of who we are as Black people.”

In 2020, Natalie Masuoka, Department of Asian American Studies chair at UCLA, argued that Harris’ identity was going to shift the way Americans think about race and identity.

“Multiracial identification encourages us to think about how complex racial identity can be for many Americans,” Masuoka said in her essay. “This opens opportunities to have constructive conversations about how race impacts individual life chances.”

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