Finally, the votes are all counted. The results are in. And the American people have voted for historic change.
The tumultuous, tribal and divisive political era of Donald J. Trump as President of the United States is coming to an end. Trumpism itself was not defeated. It is here for the foreseeable future even if the man is gone.
History has been made, however, in that Joe Biden, a man of almost 78 years, is now the oldest person ever to seek and win the office of the presidency. And California’s junior senator, Kamala Devi Harris, 56, is the first woman to win on a national ticket, and she will be the next vice president of the United States of America.
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I have been blessed now to live long enough to see something that my ancestors, and great grandparents did not, and only one of my grandparents (my maternal grandmother who is 90) has lived to see: the nation’s first black president, who was elected in 2008, and now the nation’s first woman and woman of color vice president.
It is a bit surreal, and at the same time so very real. Harris has once again defied the odds and did what everyone told her she could not do, or should not do. “It’s not your time yet.” Or “wait your turn.” I have heard those words many times myself. And each time I heard them, I ignored them. As, thank goodness, has Harris.
As the old saying goes, “well behaved women rarely make history.” Harris has now made history. And when she takes the oath of office on January 20, 2021, she will take millions of Black and brown women with her. She will be an instant icon for little girls everywhere around the globe and of course here at home. She is a symbol of what is possible for women who have Black or brown skin. She also brings with her a doting, supportive, and confident husband in Doug Emhoff who will make history as the nation’s first second gentleman.
I always thought our first woman vice president would be a white woman. It usually follows that men go first, then white women, then the rest of us. Historically, just look at the Supreme Court, we as women of color were the last to cross the threshold. It’s 2020, and no Black woman has ever sat on the nation’s high court—something President-Elect Joe Biden has pledged to change should he get the chance.
Harris will be the first woman to ever be addressed as “Madam Vice President,” and in doing so, she joins an exclusive all white male club that dates back to its first office holder, John Adams, and his successors Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Teddy Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, George H.W. Bush, and now her boss, Joseph R. Biden. Harris will likely be one of the most powerful vice presidents ever. And if Biden decides not to run for a second term in 2024, she will be the early front-runner to be the Democratic nominee.
The significance of this day and of this moment cannot be overstated. This is a huge moment for America and American women. One of our own has now shattered that second-highest glass ceiling, and is now one step closer to breaking the highest.
I am thinking today of Shirley Chisholm, whom I met in a ladies lounge in Trenton, New Jersey when I was just 23. It was one of the most amazing moments of my life. She was so warm. And at that time in her 70s, still so sharp. She was speaking at a luncheon about her run for the presidency in 1972. And she talked about how had she been a man, she would have been considered for vice president. But she was not. How proud Shirley must be smiling down from Heaven and seeing Kamala, a daughter of a Jamaican father (Chisholm’s parents were from Barbados), assume that nation’s second highest office.
As the nation is finally able to celebrate and breathe a collective sigh of relief that the Biden-Harris ticket has won, for me as a lifelong moderate Republican turned Never-Trumper, and now politically homeless, I am not sure what comes next. I know that my former party, which has now been infiltrated by Trump, QAnon, militia groups, and other extremists will have to either be rebuilt, or it will have to be torn down.
But for me as a Black woman, and Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority sister of now vice president-elect Harris, I am filled with joy and optimism that America will see better days ahead.
