A 10-Year-Old’s Advice for Kamala Harris on Embracing Her Mixed Heritage

Even though Sumaya Kaur Sidibe was just 6 years old when Kamala Harris was inaugurated as vice president, she understood the significance of the moment.

“Kamala Harris is Black and Indian. She was awesome because it felt great to have another Black and Asian person. I’m mixed, and I’m proud of it,” then-6-year-old Sumaya said.

Back then, The California Report Magazine brought you a story about Sumaya watching the 2021 inauguration with her two-year-old sister, Jaleela, and her parents, Joti Singh and Bongo Sidibe. The Bay Area family whooped and cheered “Ka-ma-la” as the trumpets blared from the television, the kids adding some impromptu harmonica solos.

“We keep telling them, ‘You know, she’s just like you. She’s Black and Indian,’” Sidibe said in 2021. “That gives the little ones more hope that they can do something like that. I mean, when you look at the history of the United States, there’s never been a woman as a vice president, especially a woman of color. That’s a big, big step.”

“It would have been really great for her to say, ‘I’m both’ ”

Nearly four years later, the Singh-Sidibe family is not nearly as enthusiastic about Kamala Harris as they were on Inauguration Day 2021.

Sumaya is now 10, and her sense of her identity has developed as her family has visited relatives in India, where her maternal grandparents came from, and Guinea, where her father was born. Her family uses the term “Blazian” to describe their mixed-race daughters, and she proudly claims both Black and South Asian heritage.

Sumaya is disappointed Harris hasn’t talked more about her mixed-race identity as she tries to tell the nation her story on the campaign trail. She thinks Harris could have pushed back more forcefully against false claims by Donald Trump that she hasn’t always been Black or that she’s monoracial, with only Indian heritage.

“[Trump’s] not mixed race, so he doesn’t know how she feels about who she is. That wasn’t cool.” Sumaya said at her home in Oakland recently. “She should have been like, ‘I am mixed race, and I’m proud of it. No one can tell me I’m not or who I am.’ It would have been really great for her to say, ‘I’m both.’ ”

“People really don’t understand that you can have two identities that are meshed into one, that you can embody being Black and Indian, that you can have both of those,” added Singh. “I think that was a moment for [Harris] to really speak to that. She’s not embracing and reaching out to the mixed-race community. She’s not like putting that at the forefront: ‘Yes, I’m one of you, and I see you.’

The Sidibe-Singh family celebrates the fusion of Black and South Asian identities not only at home but in their professional lives. Singh is trained in Indian dance, Sidibe is a West African drummer. Together, they run the Bay Area-based Duniya Dance and Drum Company, which blends dance forms from Punjab, like bhangra, with Guinean drumming and dance.

Sumaya and Jaleela grew up watching rehearsals, and Sumaya performed in some of the company’s shows.

“I think it’s a really powerful way for the kids to also understand and be able to embody both of the cultures where they come from and learn about these stories that are part of their ancestral stories,” Singh said. “They understand they’re not just one or the other. They don’t have to choose. They get to have both of these really, really rich cultures, and that’s a blessing.”

Representation is not enough

While many Indian Americans support Harris, Singh is among a group of South Asian progressives who say she doesn’t reflect their priorities.

The conflict in Gaza is the issue that’s really dampened the Sidibe-Singh family’s enthusiasm for the Harris campaign. They’ve taken their kids to protests. Signs reading ‘Asians for a Liberated Palestine’ and ‘Black Power for Palestinian Resistance’ hang in their front window.

“That’s my main concern,” Sidibe said. “Is she going to try to help stop the war in Palestine? Is she going to stop sending weapons to Israel?”

Despite his opposition to Donald Trump, Sidibe is unsure he’ll vote for Harris. Singh has decided to vote third party instead.

“We’re getting messages about lead being in the water at schools [in Oakland]. It’s just so infuriating that on our local level, we’re dealing with these issues, and we have to read every day about how our president, our vice president, our Congress is sending billions of dollars in weapons to Israel,” Singh said. “I don’t have any faith that [Harris] is going to change that. People have just given her their vote so easily without even holding her accountable for these things. ‘But she’s not Donald Trump.’ That’s not enough.”

Even though Kamala Harris is Black and Indian and from Oakland, just like her kids, representation only goes so far, Singh said.

“You have to peel away layers and look deeper,” she said. “Honestly, if we had a candidate that was closer to my values but was a white man, I would vote for him.”

As for Sumaya, she’s just frustrated that, as a 10-year-old, she doesn’t get to cast a ballot. But if she could, she would vote for Harris over Trump and hand Harris a list of priorities to tackle as president.

“Peace and human rights. Human rights are like free health care for everybody. Food and shelter for everybody,” she said. “No one [should be] discriminated against just because they’re them. And [the president should be] inspiring or encouraging people to show who they are.”