Kamala Harris and Jackie Robinson could have a commonality of being pioneers, depending on how the U.S. election goes on November 3. They also have a commonality in time spent in Montréal, the impact Montréal has had on them, and how that impact becomes invisible in the United States.
Every film adaptation of the Jackie Robinson story skips past his stint with the Montréal Royals in 1946. The opportunity to experience a life relatively free of racial bias was a significant chapter in the story. Yet that chapter gets ignored when tell the Jackie Robinson story.
Rachel Robinson, Jackie's widow, has spoken fondly of their experience in Montréal.
Montreal has more than a supporting role in '42'
Jackie Robinson's Montréal apartment honored by Canada and United States
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) — Joe Biden's selection for running mate as the vice presidential candidate for the Democratic Party — spent 5 years in Montréal. Harris attended school in Montréal from Grade 7 to Grade 11, graduating from Westmount High School in 1981. Her mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, moved the family to Montréal, teaching at McGill University and doing research at the Jewish General Hospital.
Quebec high school goes to Grade 11 followed by CEGEP. Harris went to Howard University in Washington, DC for her university education.
The time spent in Montréal would have been significant in how Harris, her sister, and mother might have been treated in that time. The city is known to be a melting pot where language spoken was more of an issue than race.
Like the Jackie Robinson story, the saga of Kamala Harris in Montréal and Canada will be an invisible story in the United States. There will not be accusations brought up about her time in Canada. There will not be praise for having spent time in Canada. There won't be advantages to knowing foreign relations because she lived in Canada.
Interestingly, former U.S. President Barack Obama spent a few years of his childhood in Indonesia. That was part of a false attack in a bizarre newspaper ad that somehow ran in the Chicago Tribune in December 2008, claiming that Obama lost his citizenship when his mother moved the family to Indonesia.
Ted Cruz is no longer a Canadian citizen
The same people didn't respond negatively to Ted Cruz, a Canadian and Cuban by birth who lived in Calgary for the first 4 years of his life.
Even with a more skeptical right-wing political presence, Canada won't be mentioned in any attacks on the junior senator from California.
Joe Biden reinforces Canadian leadership in state visit
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden goes to Canada
.@JoeBiden's running mate for the presidential election will be @KamalaHarris, who lived in MTL for 10 years while her mother taught at @mcgillu, and she graduated from @westmounthigh. This is the first nomination to this post for an African-American woman. Congratulations!
— Valérie Plante (@Val_Plante) August 11, 2020
If Joe Biden and Kamala Harris do get elected on November 3, we hope her time in Canada will help the new administration repair the considerable damage to the Canada-U.S. relationship by the current U.S. regime.
We think the time Harris spent in Montréal and in Canada is valuable to the perspective she could have as vice president and, maybe, someday, president. We know Jackie Robinson's time in Montréal was meaningful. Those perspectives should be held up high but a lot of Americans will be in the dark over the impact Montréal made on these pioneers.
photo credits: CTV Montréal; me
Twitter capture: @Val_Plante
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