The 2024 Democratic National Convention (DNC) is being held in Chicago this week August 19 to 22. There is a large presence of Jamaican, Guyanese, other Caribbean people, and Indian Americans at the convention. They are playing a role in supporting Vice President Harris to help her become President. They are at the convention to rally with Vice President Kamala Harris, the nominee, to help her win the Presidency. Her candidacy is a source of immense pride for Jamaican and other Caribbean people and Indian Americans (indeed Asians). This pride has translated into strong financial contributions from Indian Americans and grassroots support from Caribbean people. Indian community leaders have been actively involved in the Democratic campaign with fundraising holding fundraisers in their homes and restaurants and in grass roots activism, door to door campaign. Indian Americans are also involved in the Republican campaign.
It has been an electrifying Democratic convention. Kamala seems to be able to connect with the delegates at the convention and even with voters en masse in her appearances at campaign stops. Kamala has chosen Tim Walz as her VP nominee who was slated to accept the nomination on Wednesday night. Kamala will formally accept her nomination on Thursday evening bringing the curtain down on the four days of convention proceedings.
Kamala is a historic candidate with a deep connection to Jamaica and India, both places where she spent time. She was born in Oakland to a Jamaican father, Donald Harris, a professor emeritus of economics at Stanford University, and Shyamala Gopalan, an India-born academic (Biologist) who studied at UC Berkeley earning a doctorate in nutrition and endocrinology. She has a sister, also with an Indian name, Maya. Their father Donald spent long periods away from the family resulting in the parents divorcing. The court awarded the kids to Shyamala. Kamala and Maya visited Jamaica as kids but spent more extensive periods of time (when school not in session in California) in Chennai (Madras) India with their grandparents. Kamal’s middle name is Devi — Sanskrit for Hindu Goddess; many Guyanese had or have the name “Devi” as a first or middle name. Their Indian grandparents also spent a lot of time with them in America. Kamala Devi said her mother and grandparents instilled Indian values and traditions in her and sister Maya. Kamala credited her grandfather, her nanna, a bureaucrat in India, for imparting discipline and training in her studies and for public service. She did not speak much about her father but always spoke about her mother, Shyamala and her mother’s family.
A New York Times article delved into Kamala’s ethnic background – half Indian and of African and Irish (from her father’s parents). She is the first Black female, first Asian female, first Jamaican American, first Caribbean American, first Indian American, first South Asian, first Asian, first Indian/African Mixed. She is a mixed American similar to Obama who was half Irish white and half Black Kenyan. She plays her ethnicity well depending on the crowd. Republican nominee and former President Trump suggested that Kamala had somehow been duplicitous, asserting that she had identified herself as Indian American for years, only to “turn Black” for political gains. Kamala grew up and was raised by her Indian mother and Indian grand-parents. Her mother sent her to study law at Howard University, a Black institution. Kamala had consistently said she is Indian and Black. She wrote: “I grew up with a strong Indian culture, and I was raised in a Black community. All my friends were Black, and we got together and cooked Indian food and painted henna on our hands, and I never felt uncomfortable with my cultural background.”
Kamala expressed pride in her Jamaican roots and wrote of her visit to Jamaica with her father. The support from Jamaican, Guyanese, and the Caribbean and Indian American community is impactful and their numbers will make a difference especially in battleground states (like Florida, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina); there is significant Caribbean presence in Florida, Georgia, and Pennsylvania. The Indian community is flush with money and have been known to donate tens of millions of American dollars in every election campaign going back to the last three decades. Their commitment to Kamala’s campaign is crucial in fundraising efforts, raising tens of millions of dollars. They also fundraise for Trump. It is not known if any Indo-Guyanese or Indo-Trinis are at the convention like they were at the Republican convention in July. But a majority of Indo-Caribbeans are supporting Kamla Harris and the Democrats.
In terms of voter support, most Caribbean people back Kamala. Indian Guyanese and Indo-Caribbeans in general are divided with almost a third supporting Donald Trump. Many Indian Guyanese and Trini Americans back Trump. Other Indian Americans (from India, Africa, and elsewhere) are also divided in their support – a third backing Trump and two-thirds with Kamala. There are Indians from around the globe settled in USA with the largest number coming from India and almost a million with Caribbean roots.
There is a lot of enthusiasm among the Democrats nationwide from all ethnicities. Caribbean people and Indian Americans in particular see Kamala Devi as one of their own who has a chance of becoming President of the most powerful country in the world. It is a feeling beyond imagination for them. And that is why many with roots from Jamaica, Guyana, Caribbean islands, and India are rallying with her. The election is a toss-up that can go either way. Polls Kamala put slightly ahead.