Joe Biden鈥檚 selection of California Senator Kamala Harris to be his running mate has been hailed by many black and female voters. But as TC alumna Sayu Bhojwani points out in written by Mariel Padilla, the choice of Harris, who has a multiracial background, is playing well with many other Americans, too.
TC alumna Sayu Bhojwani (Photo: TC Archives)
People are seeing the part of her they want to see. Black women are focused on her Blackness. Jamaicans and people from Caribbean countries are focused on that, and Indian Americans are much more focused on her Indian background.
鈥擲ayu Bhojwani
鈥淧eople are seeing the part of her they want to see,鈥� says Bhojwani (Ph.D. 鈥�14), who is the founding director of (NAL), which recruits and prepares first- and second-generation Americans to run for elective office. 鈥淏lack women are focused on her Blackness. Jamaicans and people from Caribbean countries are focused on that, and Indian Americans are much more focused on her Indian background.鈥� Bhojwani, who served as New York City鈥檚 first Commissioner of Immigrant Affairs, added that 鈥渢he nomination of Kamala is a signal, an opening to the possibility that any of us who consider ourselves American can run for the highest office of the land.鈥�
[Read a story in TC Today magazine about Bhojwani and NAL. Also read about Bhojwani鈥檚 2018 book, People Like Us: The New Wave of Candidates Knocking at Democracy鈥檚 Door, and watch her , 鈥淚mmigrant Voices Make Democracy Stronger.鈥漖