[Special Feature: America "After Trump"] Kamala Harris Represents a Diverse Image of America—Black, Female, and Immigrant

2021/02/05

The moment Kamala Harris, dressed in a white pantsuit to honor women's suffrage activists, strode onto the stage, declared a victory for democracy, and introduced Joe Biden as the next president, many likely felt that America had returned to the way it should be. It is striking how much the Trump administration erased the previous sense of "Americanness." With the inauguration of the new administration, a new image of America is expected. In his victory public speaking, Biden described Harris with several "firsts": the "first female," "first Black woman," "first South Asian American woman," and "first woman with immigrant parents" to serve as Vice President. In contrast to Biden, who suggests a return to the pre-Trump era, the America reflected by Harris is new.

The closely contested 2020 presidential election resulted in a victory for Biden, who won battleground states such as Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Georgia. Although he received support from 70% of non-white voters, he failed to win Florida and Texas, which are known for their large immigrant populations. This has led to concerns that some Asian and Hispanic votes "drifted" to the Republican Party. Indeed, looking at Black women, they overwhelmingly supported the Democrats again this time at nearly 90%. While Black men were not quite at that level at around 80%, the Trump campaign's idea that even a small erosion of the Black male vote would be advantageous was not entirely off the mark, given the narrow margins of the election results.

To begin with, it was only after the 21st century that Asian American voters increased enough to be recognized as a factor that could sway an election. In 1992, when Bill Clinton was first elected, they accounted for only 1% of the total. Furthermore, more than half of those Asian Americans voted for the Republican Party. This ratio later reversed, and by the time Obama was elected, more than 60% voted for the Democratic Party. During his reelection, it exceeded 70%. This trend continued in 2016, when the population grew to account for 4% of voters, and remained largely unchanged in this election, with 63% supporting Biden. Nevertheless, the reason the Democratic Party felt a sense of crisis was likely because 31% voted for Trump. Considering Trump's discriminatory remarks such as "China virus" and the fact that the vice-presidential candidate was Harris, who is of Indian descent, this figure might be hard to accept. Generally, while Asian Americans tend to be positive toward Democratic policies such as universal health care, environmental protection, gun control, and social welfare, it is difficult to group them all together. Their countries of origin are diverse. Furthermore, looking at Asian American members of Congress and governors, while there are many Democrats, including heavyweights like Daniel Inouye who served in the Senate for nearly 50 years, there are also influential Republican politicians like former Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal (of Indian descent) who have run for president.

Regarding Hispanics, although it is similarly said that "Trump supporters increased," the first thing to note is that their share of the electorate has grown significantly. By the time of Obama's reelection, they accounted for 10% of all voters, and over 70% of them voted for Obama. In the 2016 presidential election, when they became 11% of voters, 66% went for Clinton and 28% for Trump; in 2020, it was again 66% for Biden and 32% for Trump. It is often said that for Hispanics, political leanings differ depending on their country of origin. For example, in Florida, 45% of Latinos voted for Trump; this is thought to be because many Cuban and Venezuelan American voters were influenced by Trump's rhetoric that the Democratic Party would bring about socialism. Of course, factors such as religious reasons, conservative views on family, or attitudes toward the economy may also play a role.

The Democratic Party's sense of crisis likely stems from the fact that they could not demonstrate the same overwhelming strength in capturing minority votes as they did during Obama's reelection. However, is it necessary to obsess over minorities? It is also noted that Republican support among white women did not decrease as predicted (remaining slightly over 50%, similar to the previous time), and many Republican women won seats in the House of Representatives. A crude understanding of supporting Democrats simply because one is a "minority" is no longer possible. Furthermore, such discussions are based on the premise that a "racial conflict" between whites and non-whites exists, but attempting to fit things into such a framework may itself be an obstacle to understanding the current state of America.

It is said that before taking public office, Harris did not speak much about her Indian heritage. According to her autobiography published in 2019 (The Truths We Hold: An American Journey, Penguin Random House, 2019), her mother, Shyamala Harris, raised her two daughters as Black without hesitation. In the American society of the 1960s when Kamala and her sister Maya were born, one was required to choose between being white or Black. This was an era when the foreign-born population was less than 5% of the U.S. total, and whites accounted for over 80% of the population. Shyamala Harris was also involved in the civil rights movement and sometimes took her young daughters to protests. Growing up within the Black community, Harris also attended a Black church.

It is also frequently mentioned that Kamala Harris is an alumna of Howard University, a Historically Black University. Ta-Nehisi Coates, author of We Were Eight Years in Power (Japanese title: My President was Black, Keio University Press, 2020), calls Howard University the "Mecca"—the center of the African American community—and even today, approximately 90% of its students are Black. Here, Harris also belonged to Alpha Kappa Alpha, a representative sorority for Black women (the oldest Black sorority). It has been pointed out that the existence of such networks also led to gaining Black support.

Biden's victory is attributed in large part to the work of Black women. In 2012, when a neighborhood watch member was acquitted after fatally shooting a Black teenager in Florida, protest demonstrations broke out across the country. The three community organizers who led the BLM movement using the hashtag "#BlackLivesMatter" are all women. Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi emphasize that the movement is "built on various previous movements," and Harris also referred to John Lewis, a civil rights activist who died in 2020, in her victory public speaking. It can be said that the Democratic victory was possible precisely because 2020 was a year when the BLM movement gained momentum and because of the steady efforts to call for voting—voter registration drives are also a long-standing Black movement. What Harris demonstrated was the history of the Black community's steady struggle.

In Georgia, a state that was considered a Republican stronghold but where the Democrats won, Stacey Abrams' name is frequently cited as the person responsible for mobilizing minority votes. In the 2018 election, Abrams aimed to become the first Black female governor; although she lost by a narrow margin, her campaign, which garnered a massive number of votes, drew significant attention. In this presidential election, she led the Democratic victory in Georgia and also secured two seats in the Senate runoff elections, ensuring a Democratic victory. Abrams particularly appealed to the fact that Black women have been neglected in American society, strongly advocating for the aggregation of their voices and their empowerment. Harris also suggests that her role is an extension of previous movements, while being conscious of being the "first Black woman."

Another aspect of the image Harris reflects is that of the "immigrant." While Harris praised her immigrant mother in her victory public speaking, she did not mention her Jamaican father. This may be unavoidable considering her parents divorced when she was seven and her mother raised the daughters as a single mother. However, during her campaign activities in Florida, she emphasized her connection to Jamaica. The fact that Harris has immigrant parents provides a starting point for thinking about American society's self-perception regarding immigrants.

Biden's victory in Georgia, which was decisive for the 2020 presidential election, was due not only to Abrams' work but also, as she pointed out, to demographic advantages. Currently, the white population (excluding Hispanics) in Georgia is only 52% of the total. The figures of 31% Black, 4% Asian, and 10% Hispanic present an image different from the traditional South. Furthermore, nearly 10% of Georgia's population is foreign-born, with the top countries of origin being Mexico, India, and Jamaica.

The diversity within the Black community should also be noted. According to Pew Research, the foreign-born Black population, which was around 800,000 nationwide in 1980, increased to nearly 4.2 million by 2016. This means that 10% of Black Americans are immigrants. Among them, the country of origin with the highest proportion was Jamaica. Poet and playwright Claudia Rankine and popular young adult novelist Nicola Yoon are both from Jamaica, and a diverse world unfolds even in the cultural sphere. As shown by bestselling authors like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie from Nigeria and Yaa Gyasi of Ghanaian descent, there have been many immigrants from Africa in recent years. Tometi of the BLM movement was born in Arizona, but her parents are immigrants from Nigeria.

The Immigration Act enacted in 1965, the year after Harris was born, abolished the previous immigrant quotas by country. As a result, many of the immigrants who increased rapidly from the 1970s onward were from Latin America and Asia. The proportion of immigrants in the population also rose from 5% in 1970 to over 10% in 2000, and nearly 14% in 2018. In an America where the presence of immigrants is growing, it could be said that Harris being chosen as Vice President was an event whose time had come.

Biden's choice of cabinet members after selecting Harris as Vice President also drew attention. As he declared he would prioritize diversity, the cabinet is varied, including Native Americans, those of Cuban and Puerto Rican descent, and those with parents who were Mexican immigrants. However, appointing diverse people to the cabinet is not something that just started; rather, it can be seen as a movement to restore a trend that had stopped during the Trump administration. For example, the Clinton administration in 1993 started with 5 women, 4 Black people, and 2 Latinos among the 15 cabinet members. The Bush administration in 2001 was similarly diverse, featuring not only the first Black Secretary of State but also two Asian Americans in the cabinet. In 2009, Obama limited white men to 8 members, with a lineup of 7 women and 9 "minorities." In other words, the face of the administration symbolizing American society was diverse regardless of political party until the Trump administration. And this was not necessarily proportional to the population composition; it was consciously diverse.

There is also strong backlash against such trends. Since the 1990s, there were already many white conservatives who felt a sense of crisis regarding President Clinton's liberal policies. For example, Pat Buchanan, a commentator known for paleoconservatism who ran for president several times, explicitly advocated anti-immigration, condemning the ever-increasing number of immigrants for destroying Western culture (= America). His book, The Death of the West: How Dying Populations and Immigrant Invasions Imperil Our Country and Civilization, became a bestseller. However, the George W. Bush administration after Clinton advocated "compassionate conservatism" that defended immigrants and sought to legalize the undocumented immigrants who had swelled to 10 million at the time. The bill did not pass Congress, the problem was postponed, and the sense of crisis regarding the influx of immigrants and the resulting exclusionary attitudes and movements would be passed down.

For example, conservative Laura Ingraham, known for her support of Trump, commented on Fox News in 2018: "The America we know and love no longer exists. Massive demographic changes have been foisted upon the American people, and they are changes that none of us ever voted for, and most of us don't like." Witnessing major changes, she converts that anxiety into grievance. Ingraham is said to be influenced by Buchanan, believing that the "original America" has been lost due to immigrants, stubbornly refusing the influx of immigrants, and strongly demanding the exclusion of undocumented immigrants in particular. Harris has countered such claims. For example, in 2018, when parents and children attempting to enter the country were being separated at the border, she strongly condemned the Trump administration, calling it a "crime against humanity."

In 2019, President Trump tweeted, "If you don't like this country, leave!" This was directed at four non-white female members of Congress known as "The Squad" who were elected to the House of Representatives in the 2018 midterm elections. Although Rashida Tlaib's parents are immigrants from Palestine, in reality, the only foreign-born member was Ilhan Omar from Somalia. From the discriminatory and exclusionary comments of Ingraham and Trump, one can see a consciousness that "we can reshape the country into the one we desire." Both "Make America Great Again" and the Tea Party movement's "Take Back Our Country" share the same idea and refuse to acknowledge change. However, what is clear is that, as Harris reflects, the population composition and the accompanying culture have already undergone a transformation, and there is no going back.

In today's America, where about a quarter of the population is foreign-born or has immigrant parents, attitudes toward immigrants are also changing. In a 2020 Gallup poll (Mohamed Younis, "Americans Want More, Not Less, Immigration for First Time," Gallup July 1, 2020), 34% of respondents wanted immigration to the United States to increase, while 28% wanted it to decrease. In this survey, which has been conducted annually since 1965, this is the first time that "increase" has exceeded "decrease." The voice of those who do not want immigration to increase has dropped significantly from 65% in 1995. In the same survey, 76% responded that immigration is "good" for the country, while 19% responded that it is "bad." It is also evident that there is a positive reception toward immigrants. In 2001, 62% said it was good and 31% said it was bad. These numbers show that discriminatory remarks like "go back to your country" are not widely accepted. Rather, could it be that because such ideas are turning into a minority, they are resorting to exclusionary actions? According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, there were 940 hate groups in 2019, and organizations advocating anti-immigration in particular are becoming more radical.

Another change symbolized by Harris is the continued increase in interracial and interethnic marriages. Interracial marriage was only 3% in 1967 when it was recognized as legal by the Supreme Court, but by 2015, it accounted for 17% of newlywed couples that year. And it is said that 10% of married people have a partner across racial or ethnic lines. Harris's parents also married across races, and Harris herself did the same. While Biden evokes the America before Trump, Harris embodies the America of right now.

Harris's self-perception is unwavering. When asked in an interview about struggles regarding race, ethnicity, and identity, she replied that she has no such hesitation and describes herself as an "American." She grew up as Black and sometimes visited her grandparents in India. These are not contradictory. Also, while understanding the reality from a minority perspective that American law is not necessarily applied equally to all people, she served as a District Attorney and as the Attorney General of California. Harris's confidence may come from the freedom to choose various belongings. In her victory public speaking, she sent a message to "little girls" that they can be anything. This likely reflects the words that Harris's mother, who was an immigrant, liked to tell her daughters: "Don't let anyone tell you who you are. You tell them who you are." I have high expectations for the new Vice President.