Kamala Harris helps 're-imagine' Black women roles

(13 Aug 2020) Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his newly-chosen running mate Kamala Harris campaigned together for the first time Wednesday, as the former primary rivals sought to solidify their advantage over President Donald Trump and secure their place in American history.

Biden, a 77-year-old white man, embraced the significance of naming the first Black woman to a major party's presidential ticket, but he focused on other attributes Harris brings to the ticket.

He hailed the California senator, the 55-year-old former prosecutor who a year ago excoriated Biden on a primary debate stage, as the right woman to help him defeat Trump and then lead a nation facing crises in triplicate: a pandemic, wounded economy and long-simmering reckoning with systemic racism.

Harris, the daughter of immigrants from India and Jamaica, sat feet away from Biden, listening with her mask off.

Taking the stage after him, Harris said she was honored by the responsibility and "ready to get to work."

Mo Elleithee, executive director of Georgetown University Institute of Politics and Public Service, says part of those next steps will be act as a surrogate-in-chief, playing to suburban swing voters and projecting inclusivity the Biden-Harris campaign wants to mobilize supporters with.

He says, she'll be strong at campaigning on digital platforms in the socially-distanced campaign trail.

"I think that's she can make that connection," he says.

Harris also launched into an attack on Trump, lambasting him for a lack of leadership on the coronavirus pandemic.

Soyica Colbert, a Georgetown University vice dean, says Harris' nomination challenges negative notions that Black women can't lead.

"She is not going to allow (Trump) or anyone else to 'put her in her place,'" Colbert said.

"This is once again, a moment where (…) we are reorganizing how we might understand a black woman's place."

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