Kamala Harris made history Saturday as the first Black woman elected as vice president of the United States, shattering barriers that have kept men 맥스카지노� almost all of them white 맥스카지노� entrenched at the highest levels of American politics for more than two centuries.The 56-year-old California senator, also the first person of South Asian descent elected to the vice presidency, represents the multiculturalism that defines America but is largely absent from Washington's power centers. Her Black identity has allowed her to speak in personal terms in a year of reckoning over police brutality and systemic racism. As the highest-ranking woman ever elected in American government, her victory gives hope to women who were devastated by Hillary Clinton's defeat four years ago.Harris has been a rising star in Democratic politics for much of the last two decades, serving as San Francisco's district attorney and California's attorney general before becoming a U.S. senator. After Harris ended her own 2020 Democratic presidential campaign, Joe Biden tapped her as his running mate. They will be sworn in as president and vice president on Jan. 20.Biden맥스카지노�s running mate selection carried added significance because he will be the oldest president ever inaugurated, at 78, and hasn맥스카지노�t committed to seeking a second term in 2024.Harris often framed her candidacy as part of the legacy 맥스카지노� often undervalued 맥스카지노� of pioneering Black women who came before her, including educator Mary McLeod Bethune, civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer and Rep. Shirley Chisholm, the first Black candidate to seek a major party's presidential nomination, in 1972.맥스카지노�We맥스카지노�re not often taught their stories,맥스카지노� Harris said in August as she accepted her party's vice presidential nomination. 맥스카지노�But as Americans, we all stand on their shoulders.맥스카지노�That history was on Sara Twyman's mind recently as she watched Harris campaign in Las Vegas and wore a sweatshirt featuring the senator's name alongside Chisholm.맥스카지노�It맥스카지노�s high time that a woman gets to the highest levels of our government,맥스카지노� said Twyman, who is 35 and Black.Despite the excitement surrounding Harris, she and Biden face steep challenges, including deepening racial tensions in the U.S. in the wake of a pandemic that has taken a disproportionate toll on people of color and a series of police killings of Black Americans. Harris' past work as a prosecutor has prompted skepticism among progressives and young voters who are looking to her to back sweeping institutional change over incremental reforms in policing, drug policy and more.Jessica Byrd, who leads the Movement for Black Lives맥스카지노� Electoral Justice Project and The Frontline, a multiracial coalition effort to galvanize voters, said she plans to engage in the rigorous organizing work needed to push Harris and Biden toward more progressive policies.맥스카지노�I deeply believe in the power of Black women맥스카지노�s leadership, even when all of our politics don맥스카지노�t align,맥스카지노� Byrd said. 맥스카지노�I want us to be committed to the idea that representation is exciting and it맥스카지노�s worthy of celebration and also that we have millions of Black women who deserve a fair shot.맥스카지노�Harris is the second Black woman elected to the Senate. Her colleague, Sen. Cory Booker, who is also Black, said her very presence makes the institution 맥스카지노�more accessible to more people맥스카지노� and suggested she would accomplish the same with the vice presidency.Harris was born in 1964 to two parents active in the civil rights movement. Shyamala Gopalan, from India, and Donald Harris, from Jamaica, met at the University of California, Berkeley, then a hotbed of 1960s activism. They divorced when Harris and her sister were girls, and Harris was raised by her late mother, whom she considers the most important influence in her life.Kamala is Sanskrit for 맥스카지노�lotus flower," and Harris gave nods to her Indian heritage throughout the campaign, including with a callout to her 맥스카지노�chitthis,맥스카지노� a Tamil word for a maternal aunt, in her first speech as Biden맥스카지노�s running mate. When Georgia Sen. David Perdue mocked her name in an October rally, the hashtag #MyNameIs took off on Twitter, with South Asians sharing the meanings behind their names.The mocking of her name by Republicans, including Trump, was just one of the attacks Harris faced. Trump and his allies sought to brand her as radical and a socialist despite her more centrist record, an effort aimed at making people uncomfortable about the prospect of a Black woman in leadership. She was the target of online disinformation laced with racism and sexism about her qualifications to serve as president.Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal of Washington said Harris맥스카지노� power comes not just from her life experience but also from the people she already represents. California is the nation맥스카지노�s most populous and one of its most diverse states; nearly 40% of people are Latino and 15% are Asian. In Congress, Harris and Jayapal have teamed up on bills to ensure legal representation for Muslims targeted by Trump맥스카지노�s 2017 travel ban and to extend rights to domestic workers.맥스카지노�That맥스카지노�s the kind of policy that also happens when you have voices like ours at the table,맥스카지노� said Jayapal, who in 2016 was the first South Asian woman elected to the U.S. House. Harris won election to the Senate that same year.Harris' mother raised her daughters with the understanding the world would see them as Black women, Harris has said, and that is how she describes herself today.She attended Howard University, one of the nation맥스카지노�s historically Black colleges and universities, and pledged Alpha Kappa Alpha, the nation맥스카지노�s first sorority created by and for Black women. She campaigned regularly at HBCUs and tried to address the concerns of young Black men and women eager for strong efforts to dismantle systemic racism.Her victory could usher more Black women and people of color into politics.San Francisco Mayor London Breed, who considers Harris a mentor, views Harris' success through the lens of her own identity as the granddaughter of a sharecropper.맥스카지노�African Americans are not far removed from slavery and the horrors of racism in this country, and we맥스카지노�re still feeling the impacts of that with how we맥스카지노�re treated and what맥스카지노�s happening around this racial uprising,맥스카지노� she said. Harris' candidacy 맥스카지노�instills a lot of pride and a lot of hope and a lot of excitement in what is possible."Harris is married to a Jewish man, Doug Emhoff, whose children from a previous marriage call her 맥스카지노�Momala.맥스카지노� The excitement about her candidacy extends to women across races.Friends Sarah Lane and Kelli Hodge, each with three daughters, brought all six girls to a Harris rally in Phoenix in the race's closing days. 맥스카지노�This car is full of little girls who dream big. Go Kamala!맥스카지노� read a sign taped on the car맥스카지노�s trunk.Lane, a 41-year-old attorney who is of Hispanic and Asian heritage, volunteered for Biden and Harris, her first time ever working for a political campaign. Asked why she brought her daughters, ages 6, 9 and 11, to see Harris, she answered, 맥스카지노�I want my girls to see what women can do.맥스카지노�