Kamala Harris: How Students Feel About the First Female and the First Mixed Black, South Asian Being Elected
November 22, 2020
On November 7, 2020, the United States election was called for the Biden/Harris campaign. With this, Kamala Harris will make history as the first female vice president, the first black vice president, and the first South Asian vice president. When students were interviewed about her achievement, the overwhelming response was that they were excited to see Kamala Harris as the vice president.
Besides being excited, some of the other emotions students were feeling included being proud (62.6%), inspired (54.4%), delighted (47.6%), and surprised (20.4%).
When answering the survey, Natalia Revollo-Aguilar shared some of her experiences with sexism and then goes on to say this about Kamala Harris: “I feel as if I could look up to her. She’s a strong, black, foreign woman and I can relate to her because I also come from a foreign family and I want to become a strong woman. She’s [definitely] an inspiration, not just to me, but to many others as well.” In a response by Brooke Ehmann-Jones, she says, “I am inspired that there is finally a female vice president in office in America, now I’m hoping that next there will be a female president! I feel that Kamala Harris is sort of paving the way for women and people of different backgrounds to have important roles in the American government and that it is long overdue to have a female vice president.” Misha Speede says “I love this! We need this type of diversity everywhere, I am very happy that she can represent those who are mixed.”
However, not everyone felt affected by her election. Adam Nguyen said, “I frankly don’t feel anything but I am just worried because she broke boundaries.” In Adam Funes Broach’s words, “This doesn’t really personally [affect] me.”
No matter how everyone feels about Kamala Harris being elected we can all agree that she will go down as history as the first woman to be elected Vice President, and as the first Black and South Asian to be elected to be Vice President.
Maclain Monsky (she/her) is an 8th grader at Glasgow Middle School and lives in Virginia. She is a competitive swimmer for the Potomac Marlins and the Dowden Terrace Dolphins. In the spring, she plays defense, attack, and goalie for Annandale Lacrosse. She recently joined VA 1 which is a travel lacrosse team. She enjoys art, especially using the mediums of markers and colored pencils. Another one of her favorite things to do is play Minecraft and Valorant with her brother.
