Kamala Harris Isn’t Just Black and Indian — She’s Also Brahmin
Many have dissected the presidential candidate’s background this election. Yet, most ignore her caste.
Kamala Harris has repeatedly said that she doesn’t need defining. “I am who I am. I’m good with it. You might need to figure it out, but I’m fine with it,” she said in 2019 in response to a question about her Black and Indian heritage. A lesson perhaps learned from her late mother, Shyamala Gopalan, who famously told her two daughters: “Don’t let anybody tell you who you are. You tell them who you are.”
Kamala Harris has so far outlined herself as a Black Indian American woman, the first of her kind to be at the top of a major political party’s presidential ticket. What she hasn’t claimed so far is being Brahmin. But what’s more astonishing is how numerous stories on Shyamala Gopalan, Kamala Harris, and the election have refused to recognize or analyze caste whatsoever.