Louis: Thank you for posting this article. I hope readers understand the implications regarding divorced fathers and California custody legal procedures. I was in a similar situation, but my son did not turn his back on me. Kamala Harris' rejection of her father speaks volumes about her character. We should also remember her effort to imprison working single parents whose children skipped school, her campaigns against pot users, and her refusal to test the DNA on the evidence in the Kevin Cooper case while he lived in fear of an execution.
On Fri, Aug 21, 2020 at 3:32 PM Louis Proyect <[email protected]> wrote: > NY Times, Aug. 21, 2020 > Kamala Harris’s Father, a Footnote in Her Speeches, Is a Prominent > Economist > By Ellen Barry > > In a warm, encyclopedic tribute to her family Wednesday night, as she > formally accepted the vice-presidential nomination, Senator Kamala Harris > skimmed past any discussion of her father, Donald J. Harris, a > Jamaican-born professor of economics at Stanford University. > > The reason is common to many of Ms. Harris’s generation: She is a child of > divorce, raised by a single mother who became her most profound influence. > > As Ms. Harris has stepped into the national spotlight, Dr. Harris, now 81 > and long retired from teaching, has remained mostly silent. His only recent > comments about her, published on a Jamaican website run by an acquaintance, > express a combination of pride in his daughter and bitterness over their > estrangement. > > He scolded her in a letter, which has since been removed from the site, > for joking in an interview that, growing up in a Jamaican family, it was > natural that she had smoked marijuana. “Speaking for myself and my > immediate Jamaican family, we wish to categorically dissociate ourselves > from this travesty,” he wrote. > > Dr. Harris did not respond to requests for comment for this article. > > Despite his low profile in the election cycle, Dr. Harris is not an > obscure figure. He was the first Black scholar to receive tenure in > Stanford’s economics department, and a prominent critic of mainstream > economic theory from the left. > > The Stanford Daily, reporting in 1976, described him as a “Marxist > scholar,” and said there was some opposition to granting him tenure because > he was “too charismatic, a pied piper leading students astray from > neo-Classical economics.” > > One of his former students at Stanford, Robert A. Blecker, now a professor > of economics at American University, said Dr. Harris’s work questioned > orthodox assumptions about growth — for instance that lower wages would > increase employment rates, or that lower interest rates always result in > increased investment. > > “He was certainly very outspoken and prominent in the profession at one > time, but not in a public way,” Dr. Blecker said. “He was certainly not > shy. When I saw Kamala grill Judge Kavanaugh at his hearing,” during his > confirmation for the U.S. Supreme Court, “I saw echoes of her father > grilling someone in a seminar.” > > Dr. Harris was raised in a landowning family on the north coast of Jamaica > by a paternal grandmother whom he described as “reserved and stern in look, > firm with ‘the strap,’ but capable of the most endearing and genuine acts > of love, affection and care.” Reserved and highly intelligent, he was more > cut out for academia than activism, contemporaries said. > > He arrived at the University of California, Berkeley, as a graduate > student in 1961. There, he met Shyamala Gopalan, an Indian graduate student > his age, who was pursuing a Ph.D. in nutrition and endocrinology. > > Ms. Harris, their elder daughter, has written that the two “fell in love > at Berkeley while participating in the civil rights movement,” and > described learning about protests from a “stroller’s-eye view.” When the > children were very young, Dr. Harris got a series of teaching jobs at > colleges in Illinois and Wisconsin, moving the family repeatedly. The > couple separated in 1969, when Ms. Harris was 5, and divorced two years > later. > > In “The Truths We Hold,” her 2018 memoir, Ms. Harris wrote that “had they > been a little older, a little more emotionally mature, maybe the marriage > could have survived. But they were so young. My father was my mother’s > first boyfriend.” > > The divorce was bitter. Ms. Harris recalls inviting both her parents to > her high school graduation, “even though I knew they wouldn’t speak to each > other,” and initially fearing that her mother would not show up. (She did, > in a “very bright red dress and heels,” Ms. Harris wrote.) > > Dr. Harris, in his 2018 essay, said his early, close contact with his > daughters “came to an abrupt halt” after a contentious custody battle. He > said the divorce settlement had been “based on the false assumption by the > State of California that fathers cannot handle parenting (especially in the > case of this father, ‘a neegroe from da eyelans,’ was the Yankee > stereotype, who might just end up eating his children for breakfast!) > Nevertheless I persisted, never giving up on my love for my children.” > > This friction did not slow Dr. Harris’s professional rise, and he was > granted tenure first at the University of Wisconsin and then at Stanford > University. Dr. Harris’s 1978 book, “Capital Accumulation and Income > Distribution,” is dedicated “to Kamala and Maya.” > > His work was followed closely in Jamaica, said Renee Anne Shirley, who was > an adviser to Jamaica’s prime minister in the early 2000s, a period when > Dr. Harris served as an economic consultant to the government. > > She recalled reading Dr. Harris’s dispatches from the United States as far > back as 1965, when he published a lengthy article about Malcolm X in The > Sunday Gleaner. > > “In three years, he got tenure — think about it, a Black man — and then he > left and went to go to Stanford? He is a big thing for us,” Ms. Shirley > said. “He pushed the boundaries. He was way ahead of his time.” > > Students described him as an attentive mentor. Lisa Cook, now a professor > of economics and international relations at Michigan State University, > recalled visiting him at Stanford in the 1980s, when she was weighing > whether to pursue a doctorate in economics. > > She said he treated her with unusual deference, inviting her to join him > for a meal in the faculty club. > > “I went to each one of the top 10 programs in the country, and nobody else > took me to the faculty club,” Dr. Cook said. > > Dr. Harris also stood out because he had deep knowledge of the > historically Black college she had attended. Perhaps, she said, this was > because his daughter Kamala had enrolled at Howard University, studying > economics. > > “Everybody wants the best for their children,” she said. “I’m sure he was > hoping someone at Howard was taking Kamala under their wing.” > > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. 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