A different perspective on Kamala Harris.
At the onset let me give you an overview of my thinking. I believe that today there is a need to address the issue of evolving identities in intercultural communities in a constructive way.
We need to train our future generations to harness the resources of intercultural communities with curiosity, compassion and creativity.
Now let me elaborate. I begin my comment with a basic belief ingrained in me during my early years. That my motherland India is a diverse country and “Unity in Diversity” is our moto for progress and prosperity. As I travelled around India and lived in different states and formed friendships, I also developed a taste for a variety of foods, festivities, rituals, languages and artistic creations from different cultures.
I never realized how much this cross cultural pollination of my inner sensitivity influenced my aesthetic sense. I was always an atheist son of an atheist father, but the semester long environmental exposure to the Jagannath Temple created in me an understanding for the place religion and god have in people’s life. My concept of secularism therefore was embedded in respect for all religions and for non believers.
As I moved to the US, I began to feel the difference between the privileged life I enjoyed in India and the newly acquired status of a minority living under poverty line. I faced discrimination, stereotyping and racism at various points. Yet my curiosity for seeking a higher calling made me realize that the training in intercultural living from India gave me a sense of comfort and optimism to tell others that people and cultures that are different from our own are not to be feared, but rather to be embraced as a new color in the palette of life’s creativity. I recognized that the future of the world will be more secure if we embrace a new intercultural identity and become a bridge rather than a wall between cultures.
I am happy for Kamala Harris, not because she has an element of Indian in her, but because she is an example of a child growing up in an intercultural society, who has faced discrimination, and can still have a hope to ascend to the top and become a bridge for cultural understanding and accommodation. I believe there is a Kamala Harris in every community that needs encouragement and example to feel empowered to be the North Star for the voyage to a future that is more promising, inspiring and full of cultural resources for creativity.
