little brown girl dreams

There is a picture, in a box, in a basement, of a little girl that could be this little girl. She is also a little brown girl with a Jamaican father and Asian bloodlines. Her hair is in two identical braids held in place with the same baubles. The baubles come in packs of ten; five sets of colours stretched across a cardboard insert. The photo is also black and white so the colours are immaterial. Both girls wear golden hoop earrings in their ears. Both girls smile brightly for the camera.

I haven’t seen the picture I’m describing in years but I remembered it immediately when I saw this photo of a young Kamala Harris.
Kamala Harris, the first woman of colour to be on a major party presidential ticket in the United States of America.
I have spent the better part of the morning liking and ‘hearting’ my way through my social media feeds. We knew it was going to be a woman, but this woman? This is wow. This moment is history. I wish my mother was still alive to see it.

When I was a girl my mother would clip things from the newspaper that she wanted me read. They were usually human interest stories of ‘triumph against the odds’ with an emphasis on stories of Black achievement. I imagine if I was a girl today the kitchen table would be an impressive mound of newsprint. I imagine if I was a girl today the news cycle would be a jackpot of validation. You can imagine what you cannot see, but it’s hard to believe what you’ve never been shown.

When I was a girl the clippings were far from a daily occurrence. We didn’t dominate news cycles even though we were achieving great things. But Yannick Noah (French Open 1983), Kevin Pugh (National Ballet of Canada principal dancer 1984), Jessye Norman (Legion d’Honneur 1989), Toni Morrison (Nobel Prize 1993) and Carol Mosely Braun (US Senate 1992) were unicorns in current events.
Today Oprah can co-opt a town’s billboards to keep a message trending and Beyoncé can proclaim Black is King. But politics is the last frontier. So drink in these images of the first Black female Presidential running mate, our eyes have thirsted for this. See it and believe it.
And yes, the news if full of heartbreak. For all the strides in civil rights there are just as many tales of stagnation and backwardness. But I am going to enjoy this moment and the promise it holds as long as I can. Because this moment will pass. The hard work will begin in earnest. The next headlines are already churning in the machine.

This moment is for all the little brown girls past and present. Let’s breathe it in and let it settle into our marrow. We’re going to need to draw on this in the days and months ahead. But right now revel in what little brown girls and daughters of immigrants are capable of achieving.
Bookmark the moment, clip it and share it with your daughters and nieces. And remember, movements are made of moments.