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Nicole Kent was watching the election results come in with her Delta Sigma Theta line sisters when Kamala Harris was elected vice-president. 

Like other women of color in the Syracuse University community, Kent, who is the president of SU’s chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., felt relieved knowing Harris will hold the second-highest office in the United States. 

While president-elect Joe Biden made headlines in Syracuse as the first SU alumnus to win the presidency, Harris will make history as the first woman, first Black person and first Asian American person to serve as vice president. Harris’ victory resonated with many women and students of color at SU, who felt proud to see someone they identify with ascend to the vice presidency, but others remain skeptical of her track record.

“It’s absolutely phenomenal to see a Black woman in such a high position as the Oval Office,” Kent said.

For Zainab Almatwari, Harris’ win reaffirmed her career goals. Almatwari, a freshman in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, hopes to one day work in Congress or the White House. 

When Biden and Harris won the election, Almatwari spent two hours in her backyard recreating a photoshoot Harris did for Vogue. It was her way to celebrate and show appreciation for Harris, she said. 

“It definitely makes my goal of politics in general feel more attainable,” Almatwari said. “Having that type of representation is more than necessary.”

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Justine Hastings, a senior and the president of SU’s Student Association, said Harris’ victory is “awe-inspiring.”

Harris’ victory has special significance to SU students who are members of the National Pan Hellenic Council. Harris is a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., one of nine historically Black Greek letter organizations called the Divine Nine.

Taylor John, a junior, serves as the president of the National Pan Hellenic Council at SU. 

“To be able to have someone who is from our community again in a position of power representing not only the Black community, not only the South Asian community, but also representing historically Black Greek life, is really amazing and just so powerful,” John said. 

Divine Nine members have had a history of breaking political barriers, and it’s encouraging to see Harris continue that tradition, Kent said.  

Shirley Chisolm,  Kent’s soror — a term some Divine Nine sororities use to refer to sisters — was the first Black woman elected to Congress and was also the first Black woman to run for president. 

“I just feel like Shirley Chisolm walked so Kamala Harris could run into office,” Kent said. 

Harris has been a U.S. senator for California since 2017. She serves on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the Select Committee on Intelligence, the Committee on the Judiciary and the Committee on the Budget. 

Prior to becoming a senator, Harris was San Francisco’s district attorney. She later became the first Black person and the first woman to serve as California’s attorney general. 

Harris ran against Biden for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination but withdrew from the race in December 2019. In early August, Biden announced Harris as his running mate.

“Little girls around the world and even around the country that we live in will be able to see Kamala Harris and say, ‘wow, she can do it, I can do it, too,’” Kent said. 

Not all students of color are excited about Harris’ election, though. 

Torian Love, a senior and the public relations and graphic design chair for SU’s Student African American Society, worries Harris’ role may be purely “cosmetic.” SAAS members have discussed the election and Harris’ controversial track record as a prosecutor in their general body meetings, Love said. 

“I kind of find it as empty, liberal progress as far as representation goes because Kamala Harris has committed a lot of unfair, unjust decisions that she’s followed through in her position as D.A. that have impacted Black and brown folks, that have affected LGBTQ and trans folks specifically,” Love said. 

Some critics of Harris have contended that her “tough on crime” policies as a district attorney disproportionately affected communities of color and low-income communities. One policy Harris supported was an anti-truancy program that threatened parents with prosecution if their children skipped school. 

As California’s attorney general, Harris’ office declined to release incarcerated people even after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling deemed overcrowding in California prisons to be cruel and unusual punishment. Harris also enforced the death penalty and defended law enforcement officials accused of misconduct. 

“That will never be erased, and that will forever be there as part of her history,” Almatwari said. “We should always acknowledge that, but I still celebrate the fact that she was the first Black, South Asian woman in the White House.” 

Having a Black woman in the White House doesn’t ensure Biden’s administration will support Black Americans or make criminal justice reforms, Love said. There is more to progress than just representation, she said. 

“I feel relief,” she said. “But I also know that our job as a country is not anywhere close to being finished.”

Published on November 16, 2020 at 9:39 pm

Contact Madison: mntyler@syr.edu