Kamala Harris and Sonia Sotomayor make history
What you need to know:
- US Vice President-elect will on today take oath of office under the tutelage of 66-year-old Ms Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.
- Ms Sotomayor is one of the three lady Justices in the nine-bench US apex court.
- Ms Harris and Ms Sotomayor, both share with the world historical achievements that give hope to women and disenfranchised ethnicities.
Swearing-in of Ms Kamala Harris will extend a page in history books on women who have broken the glass ceiling to reach the epitome of their careers.
The 56-year-old Vice President-elect will on today take oath of office under the tutelage of 66-year-old Ms Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.
Ms Sotomayor is one of the three lady Justices in the nine-bench US apex court. Others are Elena Kagan who was nominated in 2010 by the then President Barack Obama and Ms Amy Coney Barrett, who in October last year, replaced Justice Ruth Bader who died in September.
Ms Harris and Ms Sotomayor, both share with the world historical achievements that give hope to women and disenfranchised ethnicities.
The Vice President-elect is not just the first woman to be second-in-command in the power nation, but she is also the first of African and South Asian descent to hold that position.
Face of hope
Ms Harris is undoubtedly the face of hope for the Black-Americans suffering from the deep rooted discrimination.
“Our country can no longer accept the status quo where Black people are treated as less than human. Where we have two systems of justice – one for the privileged and one for everyone else,” wrote Ms Harris in a June 3, 2020 article published in Los Angeles Sentinel.
“And where leaders fail to make changes that honour our humanity. With so many people lifting their voices and taking a stand against hatred and racism, we must make meaningful change,” she concluded.
The May, 2020 killing of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, by a white police officer was the latest incident of a brutal act of racism that drew global outrage.
The late Floyd is reported to having been arrested for allegedly using a counterfeit bill after which he was handcuffed before the white police officer knelt on his neck for about nine and a half minutes while he lied face down.
On the other hand, Ms Sotomayor is the first Latina to ascent to the highest court in the US.
In the book Being Brown: Sonia Sotomayor and the Latino Question by Lázaro Lima, the lady Justice’s rise is described as “momentous for the country and of profound cultural and historical significance to Latinos.”
