Kamala Harris, a person of Indian origin, who recently became the first woman vice-president, enjoys a Brahmin background who wears the Black badge on her sleeves bringing a pride moment for all Indians, especially for Indian women.
She carries many firsts to her credit: Kamala enters the White House vice-president office as the first American woman irrespective of the fact of being white or Black; also, she is the first Asian, that is, the first person of Indian origin. Coming from Black and Brahmin background, she has a rare and unusual combination.
Another rarest occurrence is the transformation of an Indian Brahmin to Blackhood in a country which is known for racial discrimination.
Her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, went to the US for higher studies in science in 1958. Later, she married to Donald Jasper Harris, a Black economics teacher at Stanford, who migrated to the US from Jamaica.
Shyamala was a conservative Tamil Brahmins, a Vaishnavites with a ‘pure’ vegetarian food culture.She overcame that background and marred a man whose cultural heritage was quite different.
Her marriage did not last long but Shyamala, with her two girls, Kamala and Maya — continued her life as a Black civil rights activist. In the 1960s, Shyamala became an activist for the civil rights movement when it was at its peak with Martin Luther King leading the agitation across the US.
While Shyamala became a protestant Christian and continued visiting the Hindu temples, young Kamala became a good choir singer.