Kamala Harris: Potential First Black Female President & Impact on Caribbean Relations

As Kamala Harris stands on the brink of potentially becoming the first Black woman and person of Caribbean descent to be elected President of the United States, we believe it is a moment of profound significance for the entire Caribbean region. We wholeheartedly support Harris’ candidacy, recognising the transformative impact her leadership could have on US-Caribbean relations and the global stage.

For West Indians especially, the vice president’s journey is deeply resonant. As the daughter of a Black Jamaican immigrant, her rise to the highest echelons of American politics exemplifies the resilience, ambition, and excellence that have long defined the Caribbean diaspora. That she is the daughter of an Indian mother only further intertwines her story with our multiracial, multicultural history where African, Asian and European currents have commingled for generations. Her success shows that our heritage is not a limitation but a strength on the world stage.

Vice President Harris’s policy positions align closely with our own pressing concerns. Her unwavering commitment to combating climate change is crucial for Barbados, in the face of the existential threat of increasingly severe hurricanes, extremes of heat and drought and other dreaded phenomena. We have no truck with the cave-dweller’s climate denialism of her Republican Party challenger. Harris’s advocacy for environmental justice and sustainable development echoes Prime Minister Mottley’s passionate calls for global action on climate change. Under President Harris, there would be no retreat into a selfish America-only stance that threatens international order, peace, security, reparative justice and the bid to save our climate from cataclysm.

Moreover, her focus on social justice, healthcare reform, and economic equality reflects the values our social democratic politics cherish. Her efforts to protect reproductive freedoms resonate with our commitment to rights and freedoms in a nation where medical termination of pregnancy has been recognised in statute law as a women’s sacred right and a public health necessity for the past 40 years.

As a sovereign island nation since 1966, a young republic since 2021 and a parliamentary democracy of ancient heritage, where self-determination has been the hallmark of governance since 1651, Barbados stands to benefit significantly from Harris’s foreign policy and international relations positions. The old truism that Republican administrations tend to benefit Caribbean nations has since 2016 been reduced to a disingenuous trope. We can confidently anticipate even stronger ties with Washington, potentially opening new, mature avenues for trade and commerce, cultural exchange, and mutual cooperation, particularly in the maintenance of peace and civil security. Her support for comprehensive immigration reform is particularly relevant for many Barbadian families with relatives in the US – among the GOP’s current targets for mindless “mass deportation”.

We are encouraged by the broad support Harris has already garnered within an otherwise unruly Democratic Party, sparked by President Joe Biden’s gracious exit from the nomination process and enthusiastic endorsement of his vice president, followed by the swift pledges of support from key party figures and would-be rivals. This widespread backing underscores her readiness to lead and her ability to unite diverse constituencies – a skill that will be crucial in addressing the complex challenges facing Washington and its global partners.

In endorsing Kamala Harris for US President, we are not just supporting a candidate who ticks ethnic and racial boxes; we are embracing a vision of progress, inclusivity, and shared prosperity. Her presidency, together with the prospective speakership of House of Representatives Democratic leader Hakim Jeffries would mark a new chapter in Caribbean-American relations, one in which the truth can be spoken and our concerns addressed at the highest levels of global leadership.

It is a poignant note of history that Jeffries, upon his election to the leadership said: “I stand on the shoulders of Shirley Chisholm and others,” referring to the late Barbadian-American congresswoman, the first Black woman to be elected to the United States Congress in 1968, the first Black candidate for a major-party presidential nomination and the first woman to run for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination. She represented New York’s then 12th Congressional District in Brooklyn, now the 8th Congressional District that Jeffries represents.

In this centenary year of Shirley Chisholm’s birth, would that her legacy bear fruit with the election of a leader who embodies the best of Caribbean potential on the global political stage.

It is for the voters of the United States to overcome the centuries-old legacy of racism and sexism and vote in the interest of preserving the American project. We urge them, especially those of West Indian descent, to rally behind Kamala Harris. Her success is our success, and her presidency could usher in an era of unprecedented opportunity, unity and amity between Barbados, the entire Caribbean region and our great neighbour to the north.