Courtney E. Martin

Because she knows the pain and promise of sticking together

Democratic primary debate, 2019: “There was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bused to school every day. And that little girl was me.”

That was the moment I fell in love with Kamala Harris. Part of it was that my own little California girls—Maya and Stella—were the racial minority at their own Title I public school. After forcing families like Kamala’s to be the ones culturally displaced in pursuit of more integrated schools, I believed that it was time for white families like mine to do the uncomfortable thing in pursuit of this nation’s promise. Maya and Stella weren’t bussed; they simply walked to school, past their white neighbors who largely sent their kids to private schools or figured out how to work the system to get their kids into whiter, wealthier public schools further afield. All the while, large-scale, longitudinal data shows us that, as Dr. Rucker C. Johnson puts it, “The medicine that is integration works.” Kids of color who go to more integrated schools do better academically, earn more over their lifetimes, and even live longer, and white kids aren't “harmed” academically and have more muscles for border-crossing friendships throughout their lives. 

Kamala is a testament to that still often ignored research. Brown v. Board of Education was one of those moments where the policy was way ahead of the culture. We had a hunch integration would be good for this nation, and Kamala is a glorious symbol of that proven truth. I love the idea of her leading this weary nation at this contested time because she knows the pain and promise of sticking together, of sharing resources, of learning how to stay different, but united, for beautiful and collective uplift. She did it as a little girl in a classroom in California all those years ago, and she will do it as a wise, principled leader in the Oval Office in Washington, DC, come January, and we will all be better off as a result. 

Courtney E. Martin is the author of four books, (most recently, Learning in Public), a popular newsletter called Examined Family, host of The Wise Unknown podcast from PRX, and cohost of the Slate How To! podcast.