20 Best Kamala Harris Quotes to Inspire Every American
On being a role model
“Every little girl watching tonight sees that this is a country of possibilities.”
In her post-2020 election speech, Harris talked about the women who came before her and those who will come after. “I’m thinking about … the generations of women—Black women, Asian, White, Latina and Native American women throughout our nation’s history who have paved the way for this moment tonight,” she said. “Tonight, I reflect on their struggle, their determination and the strength of their vision … And I stand on their shoulders.”
Echoing her mantra, she continued with more confidence-boosting words for young people. “But while I may be the first woman in this office, I won’t be the last. Because every little girl watching tonight sees that this is a country of possibilities,” she said. “And to the children of our country, regardless of your gender, our country has sent you a clear message: Dream with ambition, lead with conviction and see yourselves in a way that others may not, simply because they’ve never seen it before.” Powerful words!
On social justice
“In times like this, silence is complicity.”
Like the best Martin Luther King Jr. quotes, Kamala Harris quotes like this one inspire without shying away from hard truths. As a Black woman, Harris is uniquely positioned in politics to discuss racism in the United States and to inspire everyone to take action, as she did when speaking about the protests against racism in the summer of 2020. “Let’s speak the truth: People are protesting because Black people have been treated as less than human in America. Because our country has never fully addressed the systemic racism that has plagued our country since its earliest days,” she wrote in an essay for Cosmopolitan. “It is the duty of every American to fix. No longer can some wait on the sidelines, hoping for incremental change.”
On racial health disparities
“There is no vaccine for racism.”
This is one of the most piercing of Kamala Harris’s quotes. Throughout her career, she has addressed the topic of racial discrimination, summed up in this anti-racism remark from her speech at the 2020 Democratic National Convention. In this instance, she used the example of how the COVID-19 virus disproportionately affected Black, Latino and Indigenous people. “This is not a coincidence. It is the effect of structural racism,” she said. “This virus has no eyes, and yet it knows exactly how we see each other—and how we treat each other. We’ve gotta do the work to fulfill that promise of equal justice under law.” Echoing 19th-century Jewish American poet Emma Lazarus, Harris continued, “Because none of us are free until all of us are free.”
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