Fathers. We all have them, but all too often, parental dynamics don’t go as smooth as we want them to. Last Thursday, Vice President Kamala Harris gave the most important speech of her career thus far as she accepted the Democratic nomination for president. But there was one person noticeably absent from the speech, and people are wondering why.
The day after Harris’ Aug. 22 speech marked her father’s, Donald J. Harris’, 86th birthday. The Jamaican-born, retired university professor wasn’t at the DNC, and more importantly, he has kept his distance from his daughter’s political successes, according to USA Today.
Harris’ parents married in 1963 after meeting at the University of California, Berkeley. Harris said the couple split when she was just seven years old, leaving her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, to raise her and her sister, Maya, largely by herself.
In her 2019 memoir, “The Truths We Hold,” Harris said her father remained a part in her childhood. “We would see him on weekends and spend summers with him in Palo Alto,” she said. “But it was my mother who took charge of our upbringing.”
During her DNC speech, Harris praised her mother but only briefly mentioned Donald saying, “At the park, my mother would say, ‘Stay close.’ But my father would say, as he smiled, ‘Run, Kamala, run. Don’t be afraid. Don’t let anything stop you.’” She continued saying, “From my earliest years, he taught me to be fearless.”
Donald, a lover of scholarship and theory, held positions at Northwestern University; the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; and Stanford University, according to Fox News. Notably, the professor became the first Black scholar to receive tenure at Stanford’s economic school.
While her father continued his teaching career, Harris began to pave her own way, earning her law degree and eventually serving as Attorney General and senator of California. According to his 2018 essay, Donald was proud of his daughter saying, “All grown up now, Kamala is carving a way for herself in America.”
Just a year later, however, Donald would speak publicly about Harris for the first and only time, and it wasn’t to sing her praises. While promoting her memoir, Harris jokingly said she’s not opposed to the legalization of marijuana revealing “half my family’s from Jamaica, are you kidding me?”
Although Harris meant well, Donald was not amused by his daughter’s reference to the pot-smoking stereotype. He wrote in a statement to Jamaica Global Online, “My dear departed grandmothers, as well as my deceased parents must be turning in their grave right now.” He continued, “Speaking for myself and my immediate Jamaican family, we wish to categorically dissociate ourselves from this travesty.”
Although the professor later walked back his statement, Donald told Politico he “decided to stay out of all the political hullabaloo by not engaging in any interviews with the media.” Ever since then, Donald has remained radio silent on all matters concerning Harris’ career.
The father-daughter duo don’t have many recent photos together, but Harris told the Washington Post in 2021 they are on “good terms.” It might be unlikely we’ll get to see the two together, but maybe a presidential win could change things for the better.