‘She’s representing us’: Longtime supporter on Harris inauguration

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – A dream many women could only imagine has been realized with Kamala Harris now being the first female Vice President of the United States.

Actress and author Robinne Lee has been campaigning for the new VP for more than a decade.

“I hoped from the time I was little that I would see this in my lifetime, so that it’s really happening? It’s incredible,” Lee said.

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She first met Harris at a fundraiser in 2009 when Harris was running to be the Attorney General of California.

“It was at someone’s house in the Hollywood Hills and we went to hear her speak and there were maybe 30 of us in the living room. She was incredible and inspiring and she didn’t not look like me and she didn’t not have my story,” she recalls.

Lee’s parents are immigrants from Jamaica and her father is half-Asian.

“I was seeing myself up there, speaking,” she said.

She says it’s hard to find the words to explain how incredible it was to watch Wednesday’s inauguration.

“I can’t believe this is happening and yet, this should have happened 50 years ago,” she told NEWS 1130.

Watching the inauguration with her 11-year-old daughter is something Lee will cherish.

“It’s an extraordinary moment for all women. Even more so for Black women. Even more so for Asian women. For Black Asian women from Jamaica, she’s there representing us! We’re there! We are there!” she exclaimed.

Lee tells us she was moved to tears during Wednesday’s inauguration.

“I was screaming. [My daughter said] ‘Mom stop screaming!’ and I was crying. There was a lot of shouting and happiness,” she said.

She’s been explaining to her daughter how important this day is for women of colour.

“She was born the week after Barack [Obama] became president. So, she’s seen a black president. She’s seen a mixed-race president. That’s not an anomaly to her. She’s grown up with powerful names like Nancy Pelosi or Hillary Clinton … She knows these names. She knows that women have achieved certain positions of power. So, for her to see Vice-President Harris — it’s so lovely to say — accepting this position and taking her oath, it doesn’t even ring for her as profoundly as it would have for someone 10 years older than her,” Lee said.

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She believes the fact that her daughter doesn’t see today’s inauguration as anything out of the ordinary speaks volumes.

“It says so much about how far we’ve come,” she said.

Lee isn’t alone in her feelings of inspiration after seeing the inauguration of Harris.

Raj Sihota, a Vancouver based political strategist and former executive director of the BC NDP, says seeing Harris as second in command has inspired women of all backgrounds.

“As a Black-South Asian, American daughter of immigrants, her very presence shatters the imagination barrier,” she says. “You don’t have to imagine having someone like that in a position like that. That has happened.”

She says reaching that level of power is no longer just a dream.

“There’s never been a woman of colour in the executive branch. That she’s been sworn into the second-highest office in the United States. She’s the second person of colour. Just the symbol that she sends not only to people in the United States, but people around the world. The immigrant story that can be a success.”

Sihota also expects Harris to be a trail-blazer when it comes to improving the White House record on inclusivity because her work as a senator and former Attorney General of California already reflects that.

“When you look at Harris’s relationship with long-overlooked constituencies, she is just much more representative. And when it comes to legislation ensuring federal COVID-19 funding, whether it’s about championing relief, there’s just a history of her doing this work by the very nature of her being at the table.”

Both Lee and Sihota were nervous about possible security breaches leading up to Harris getting sworn in, and they’re relieved the ceremony was peaceful.

Sihota says it’s a sign democracy will endure.

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