…validation through Kamala
Your Eyewitness has been looking on with great bemusement at the presumptuousness of some folks at the rise of Kamala Harris, the presumptive VP of the US of A. It began as soon as she waded out of the Democratic Primaries and eventually was selected by Joe Biden as his running mate against Donald Trump. It’s all rather pathetic!! First of all, did you EVER hear about anyone mentioning Trump and Pence?? Yes, that’s right, Pence, Trump’s VP? Remember him?
Think about it – Did Pence ever have any influence in Washington? How about Obama’s VP? The same Joe Biden who might have to defend his victory in court. Exactly which power centre did he command during his four years as VP? His visit to the Caribbean to talk to Caricom about energy policy was about as close as he ever got to “power”!! The concern was that the Caribbean was getting too close to Venezuela and its subsidised PetroCaribe oil.
But back to Kamala. She’s being claimed by Jamaica – through her Jamaican father – even though the woman has maybe NEVER mentioned him after he walked out from her mother and his two daughters. Yes, she visited Jamaica and looked up her roots…but does this mean she has any affinity for Jamaica, Jamaicans and their travails in the world?
And then there’s India. From their Prime Minister Modi down to the villagers in Tamil Nadu of South India, there’s been strident claims for Kamala as “theirs”!! After all, they can point to Kamala’s oft repeated praise of her mother, who came out of the latter locale to attend Berkeley back in the day. But even those claims are fraught with ambiguities. Tamil Nadu has a running battle with the centre of power at Delhi and the entire north for their “dismissal” of Tamil culture and civilization. So, is Kamala going to identify with “India” or “South India”?
What all of this “claiming of Kamala” exposes if the pathetic state of the collective self-esteem of the entire Third World. Your Eyewitness even saw stories out of Nigeria boasting that Kamala’s sister Maya’s (out of wedlock) daughter Meena is married to a Nigerian man!!
Now, as a supposed corrective, some may point to some village in Ireland laying claim to “Irish” Joe Biden. But then Ireland and the Irish were originally seen as not quite “kosher”, weren’t they?!
What all these folks should realise is the mantra of the US, which will not be violated, no matter who occupies the White House: there are no permanent friends or permanent enemies, just permanent interests.
And as Trump discovered, there’s a “deep state” in the US to ensure that nobody forgets that!!
…Kamala’s identity
What many folks don’t realise when they impose identities on Kamala Harris is that identities are more influenced by one’s environment that by one’s self. And Kamala’s dominant environment was the good, ole US of A, where the rule on identity – vis-a-vis its major marker, race, – is the “one drop of blood” rule. To wit, that any person with even one drop of “black/African” blood is by definition “Black”.
Kamala has very explicitly declared that her mother raised her and her sister as “Black”. There was no question that the PhD mother from India and the PhD father from Jamaica – who were at the very radical Berkeley University and were engaged in the Civil Rights Movement – were intimately familiar with the “one drop rule”. As children, Kamala and her sister Maya attended a Black church in Oakland and Black cultural events.
As an adult, Kamala consciously applied to, and attended, the historically Black Howard University, and joined its most prestigious Black Sorority.
What else can she do to prove her “blackness”?
…allies
Coming back to the US and its interests, which Biden will have to protect, China will continue to loom large, so Biden will have to continue Obama’s “pivot to Asia” strategy.
With its extension to include India.
