An APR news feature
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris is less than a week away from what may be her comfirmation by the U.S. Electoral College. Her election attracted attention in the African-American, Asian-American, and Indian-American communities. Harris will also be the first woman to assume the second highest office in the nation. APR Gulf coast correspondent Lynn Oldshue sat down with two young ladies along the Gulf coast who have a lot to say about this moment in history.
Bria Scott and Carrington Bush were Azalea Trail Maids together in Mobile back in 2017-2018. The maids act as goodwill ambassadors for the Port City. Bria went to Howard University in Washington D.C. to major in journalism. Carrington went to Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa to study pre-medicine or neuroscience. Both say Kamala Harris’ election as the first woman of color as Vice-President is huge.
"I don't even have the words for it right now," said Bush. "When she said in her acceptance speech, 'Every little girl watching tonight sees this country as full of possibilities,' I think the little girl in every black woman jumped out."
Bush hung on every word of Harris’ acceptance speech. She said she’is proud that it was black women who helped get Biden and Harris elected.
"Black women are always put last. I feel like black women are always uplifting other people, every other community, just continuing to support," Bush said. "But who was uplifting the black women? Black women uplift themselves. John Lewis' quote that 'Hands that once picked cotton now can pick a president' will forever stay with me."
Scott is also proud that black women are finally receiving respect and recognition. The Vice-President Elect graduated from Howard University and today Scott walks on the same campus and hopes to follow in her path.
"Finally for the world to say, we know that you're capable, we know that you can serve in this role," Scott said, "that just because you are not the same color as me, I believe in you. I think just not for me, but for 70-year-old women and 7-year-old little girls. That's a testament to everything that black women have just been through in the past and just showing us where we can go from here. I see Kamala Harris walk in the same dorm as me and go in the same buildings as me. I see her in pictures in the yard at Howard that feels attainable. That feels like something I can achieve and become. She showed us we are enough and to walk in the same footsteps she walks in is so inspirational to me. I think even for my 9-year-old little sister to be so inspired. She said that someone who looks like me is now in the White House. Whether they realize the importance of it or not, they're never going to forget that they can get to that position regardless of what they look like."
Scott said she is still in shock from the election and she turned to Christmas music to get through the election season, one song in particular. It's called "Someday at Christmas," by Stevie Wonder, and features lyrics like "Men won't be boys playing with bombs like kids play with toys. One warm December our hearts will see a world where men are free."
"The song 'Someday at Christmas" has always been a special song to me," Scott said. "I probably sound so corny, so childish, but I think the song offers so much hope. And in a time where we've had such a challenging year, 2020 has shown us the impossible can be possible in both good and bad ways. And I think that that's helped that someday at some point things will be okay. That song has really been a hopeful song for me. I think that at some point things can be better. And I mean, you have to look at what's just happened right now with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. That's hope for the future and the hope of 'Someday and Christmas', the world may be at peace," she said.
