Vice President Kamala Harris has accepted the Democratic nomination to run for the office of the forty seventh President of the United States, marking a historic moment as the primary Black and South Asian woman to advance in a primary with enough delegates to face the eventual Republican nominee.

Harris is of African and South Asian descent but identifies as black. Her “blackness” has been questioned, despite her parents’ passion for civil rights, which planted the seeds of justice she so strongly touted during her campaign.

Like former President Barack Obama, she also represents the American dream.

During a recent interview with CNN, Harris asked about Trump’s questioning of her identity and his claim that she was only claiming to be black for political gain.

“The same old, boring instructions,” she told the reporter. “Next question, please.”

DANA: Trump suggested that you just recently turned black for political reasons.

KAMALA: “Next question, please.” photo: twitter.com/kb9niY58oj

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) August 30, 2024

For those in need of an education lesson, listed below are the historical roots of Kamala Harris’ parents.

Donald and Shyamala’s Love Story

Harris’s parents, the late Dr. Shyamala Gopalan and Donald J. Harris, exemplify the merging of two distinct cultures.

Shyamala, an Indian immigrant, and Donald, a Jamaican who immigrated to the U.S. with some Irish ancestry, met as undergraduates on the University of California, Berkeley. Their love story began in 1962, once they attended a study group for black students often called the Afro-American Association. Shyamala was easily accepted into the group as an individual of color from one other British colony.

Donald and Shyamala’s connection was immediate. The then 24-year-old Donald was described as charming and attention-grabbing. At one meeting, he performed and gave a speech about his experiences growing up under British colonial rule in Jamaica, and Shyamala was charmed, According to to the New York Times.

After the speech, she introduced herself, which was the start of their acquaintance, which might soon lead to marriage.

“I found all this very interesting and, dare I say, a little charming. We spoke again at the next meeting, and then at another. The rest is history,” Donald recalled.

Within a yr of meeting, the couple were married, changing the course of Shyamala’s life. Initially planning to return to India after college, Shyamala decided to stay in America, starting a family that eventually produced a daughter who broke political barriers.

“I came to UC Berkeley to study. I never came to stay. It’s the old story: I fell in love with a guy, we got married, kids soon followed,” Shyamala once said.

Shyamala and Donald married in 1963. Harris was born in 1964, and her younger sister, Maya Harris, was born in 1967. The children allegedly sang within the choir at a neighborhood black church and lived two houses down from a black-run preschool.

Divorce

Harris’s parents’ marriage, though passionate and seemingly rooted of their shared activism, didn’t last. By 1971, when the longer term vice chairman was almost 5, the couple was divorced.

The former San Francisco district attorney noted in her 2019 memoir, “The Truths We Hold,” that Donald and Shyamala “loved each other very much, but it seemed like they had become like oil and water.” The pressures of their young marriage and demanding careers eventually led to her parents’ separation.

Shyamala took primary responsibility for raising the First Vice President and her younger sister.

Despite the challenges, Shyamala worked tirelessly to provide for her daughters. Harris recalled that her mother would pack lunches early within the morning and help with homework after long days at work. Although the 2 sisters lived primarily with their mother, they spent weekends and summers with their father, who had returned to Northern California to work at Stanford University.

Mother: Shyamala Gopalan

Shyamala, who died of colon cancer in 2009, was born right into a Tamil Brahmin family. As a girl aspiring to study science, her options were limited. Undeterred, she applied to UC Berkeley to pursue a biochemistry degree with a dream of curing cancer. Her father supported her ambitions, using his retirement savings to fund her first yr of faculty.

Harris’s mother, a graduate of the University of Delhi, got here to America when she was just 19.

Shyamali’s siblings would describe her as “feisty and mischievous“the child he often skipped school with and got into trouble with,” reports USA Today.

After earning her doctorate in nutrition and endocrinology from UC Berkeley, she became a distinguished breast cancer researcher. Her profession included positions at prestigious institutions resembling the University of Illinois, the University of Wisconsin, and McGill University’s Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research in Canada.

Shyamali’s contributions to the sector of hormones and breast cancer have been significant, earning her quite a few honors and recognition as a National Institutes of Health reviewer.

Harris often credits her mother with shaping her values ​​and profession.

“To the woman who is most responsible for my presence here today, my mother, Shyamali Gopalan Harris, who is always in our hearts,” she said he said after being elected vice chairman in 2020, she proudly applauded her mother, a “five-foot brown woman with an accent.”

Who is Donald J Harris?

“In the park, my mother would say, ‘Stay close.’ But my father would say with a smile, ‘Run, Kamala, run. Don’t be afraid. Don’t let anything stop you,’” Harris once said in speech when talking about her father. “From a young age, he taught me not to be afraid of anything.”

Donald grew up in Jamaica—before the country gained independence from Britain—and attended British schools throughout his life. Like the vice chairman’s father, he seemed to live without fear.

When he decided to pursue a doctorate in economics, he was drawn to the United States, which seemed to be “a vibrant and dynamic society with a complex racial and ethnic structure.”

After Donald graduated from UC Berkeley in 1966, the young husband and father became an economics professor. He worked at several Midwestern universities before returning to Northern California to work at Stanford University.

Vice President Harris’ father, grandfather and great-grandfather… #KamalaHarris2024 #Paris2024 #NABJ24
Who is Donald Harris, father of Kamala Harris and renowned Stanford University professor?

First black scientist awarded tenure at Stanford University’s Economics Department. photo:twitter.com/dIEhgKDhak

— Da_Skeptunes (@Robin_Volpi) July 31, 2024

Advertisement

Although he was to remain on the university for less than two years as a visiting professor, students campaigned for the department to grow to be more involved in “radical political economy.” Donald, whom The Stanford Daily described in 1974 as a “Marxist economist,” was asked to remain at the college as a full-time professor in 1975.

Donald continued teaching at Stanford University for greater than 20 years, during which era he traveled extensively around the globe. He was an associate fellow and college member on the University of Cambridge and a visiting professor at Yale University, amongst other positions.

In 1998, he retired from Stanford with the title of professor emeritus.

In addition to his academic achievements, Donald has played a big role in shaping economic policy in Jamaica through his role as a consultant to the federal government. His contribution was recognized in 2021 when he was awarded the Order of Merit, the third highest honor in Jamaica.

Despite his distinguished profession, Donald rarely gets involved in his daughter’s political life.

He didn’t appear on the 2024 Democratic National Convention and has not commented publicly on her profession since 2019, when he criticized her remarks about marijuana use.

Harris once joked, “Half my family is Jamaican. Are you kidding me?”

Donald he replied to Jamaica Global Online, stating that his ancestors “must be turning in their graves right now” over the association of their Jamaican identity with “the false stereotype of the pot-smoking pleasure seeker.”

Identity Complications

Harris’ identity as a mixed-race woman has been the topic of intense scrutiny and misinformation, complicating her campaign as many defend her blackness. Even former President Donald Trump questioned whether she was truly “black” or just claiming to be black to pander to a certain community.

Despite every part, Harris remained true to her identity.

“I am black and I am proud to be black,” she said in a 2019 interview with The Breakfast Club with hosts DJ Envy and Charlamagne Tha God, addressing the rumors. “I was born black. I will die black, and I am not going to make excuses for nobody because they don’t understand.”