I was glued to the Democratic National Convention (DNC) last week. Enthralled by the roll call process that turned into a dance party of sorts and the electrifying and seemingly endless stream of endorsements for the Democrats’ Presidential nominee, Kamala Harris.
I have been mesmerised by the USA political system and how their campaigns differ from what we see in Australia. I sat in disbelief as they had Republicans endorse a Democrat. And I shed tears numerous times as seeing Harris endorsed felt like a turning point.
The DNC was joyful, full of love and compassion and had a vibe we have been missing in politics, not just in America but worldwide.
We won’t know until November if Harris will win the presidential race, but it gave me joy at this moment to see a stadium full of people who are black, white, disabled, LGBTQIA’s, neurodiverse, young, old, short and tall, who look like our families and us. Harris’s story connects with so many of our stories – hard-working migrant parents who had big dreams and were seeking a better life full of opportunity.
My son, after watching me glued to the TV and yelling out and clapping spontaneously, asked me why l cared so much and how the American election actually affects us. I looked at him and explained that often, regardless of what we think of the US, it sets a standard and agenda for the rest of the world. We have seen it play out here in Australia in the rise of right-wing politics and extremism, divisive racial rhetoric, transgender uproar about shared bathrooms and the start of ripples of commentary regarding female reproductive rights.
While we need to stem the flow of American rhetoric and policy duplication in Australia, for me, this election has an even bigger vibe. I told my son that l feel we are on the brink of something big, huge in fact – a woman in the highest office with immense power.
On the final day of the DNC, the arena was filled with women wearing white. White suits, white dresses, white from top to toe, to honour the legacy of suffragettes who fought to give women the right to vote and to celebrate the first Black/Indian American woman to become a major party’s nominee.
Women are on the ballot in 2024 not just in America but worldwide. Sexual and reproductive rights have gone backwards. Increasingly, we have men tell us what we can and can’t do with our bodies. Coincidentally, this week coincides with the 104th anniversary of the constitutional provision that gave women the right to vote in 1920 in America. We “can’t go back”. We just can’t.
At the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies (APAICS) legislative summit in Washington this week, Harris was asked to reflect on her role as the nation’s first Asian American vice president, her advice was: “This is part of what’s involved: is that we have to know that sometimes people will open the door for you and leave it open; sometimes they won’t,” she continued. “And then you need to kick that fucking door down.”
As women, we have always been told who we are, what we can’t do and what we can’t be. If a woman, a woman of colour, can break through the biggest glass ceiling in the world, it tells us that, finally, gender equality has taken a giant leap forward.
An iconic picture was taken by a photographer as Kamala Harris was giving her speech. It was a picture of a little girl, her hair in two pigtail plaits watching Harris on stage accepting the Democratic nomination. It looks like a juxtaposition of the Vice President looking at her future self. The little girl is, in fact, her niece, but the picture can easily be any little girl, especially one from a culturally and racially diverse background imagining what she can be.
I believe that you can’t be what you can’t see and representation matters.
If Kamala Harris is successful in her quest to become the next President of the United States, it signals to our younger generation of women that they can and should kick down the doors and demand their rightful seat at every table. Women before us have unlocked the doors, and now increasingly we’re seeing opportunities for more of us to open them.