Question : What did the election results mean for little girls ?
This lone figure focuses on a promise and the hope that was made possible by the presidential election of Joe Biden and his vice-president Kamala Harris. The artist hopes young girls in his country and around the world will accept that there are no barriers they can’t overcome. The blue iris flower represents hope and the rolled-up sleeves symbolise the work that needs to be done.
Kadir Nelson uses the same medium (oil paint) that artists have used for centuries. He said that he was inspired by ancient Egypt, Renaissance, and early twentieth century painting.
Listen to this document from NPR
This is what Kamala Harris said : (…)” while I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last, because every little girl watching tonight sees that this is a country of possibilities“.
President Biden declared : “This morning, all across the nation, little girls woke up — especially little Black and brown girls, who so often feel overlooked and undervalued in their communities. But today, today, just maybe, they’re seeing themselves for the first time in a new way.”
Harris’s origins : the daughter of immigrants, father from Jamaica, mother from India
The USA : a country becoming more racially diverse, an interracial democracy that represents people, men and women from all over the world.
Harris’s education and role models: She was raised in Oakland, California
- Her mother, who left India in the 1950s to study at UC (University of California) Berkeley
- Shirley Chisholm — the pioneering first Black woman to serve in Congress and who also became the first woman to seek the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in the 1972 election.
The promise Joe Biden made : He would choose a woman as his running mate.
The context : Black women helped Joe Biden win the 2019 election. They have been very vocal and active in the Democratic party.
President Donald Trump called Kamala Harris a “monster” and a “communist” and argued that it would be an “insult” if she became the first female president. Republican Sen. David Perdue appeared to intentionally mock Harris’ first name at a campaign rally in Georgia.
“If you think of the kind of racist and misogynistic slurs that are hurled at Black women or sometimes even unconscious ideas about who Black women are and how they should behave, or how they should talk, I think she’s the best answer to that,” said Manisha Sinha, an American history professor at the University of Connecticut,. “In a way, I think it will lead to the country’s healing a little bit after four years of blatant racism and sexism being literally espoused from the highest office in the land.”
READ HERE about the AMERICAN DREAM
The phrase “American dream” has come to be associated with upward mobility and enough economic success to lead a comfortable life. Historically, however, the phrase represented the idealism of the great American experiment. A Brief History of the American Dream, bushcenter.prg
The Oxford English Dictionary defines the American dream as “the ideal that every citizen of the United States should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative.”
Martin Luther King Jr. mentioned the American Dream in the civil rights struggle in 1963, when he told white America that Black Americans shared that dream:
“I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…”
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.“
- Introduce the document : Author/title/date of publication/Genre of the document/identify the New Yorker magazine/ The question : what did this picture mean in November 2020 ?
- Describe the picture precisely
- Define the American Dream (look up). Mention the ideal that any American born person may become president
- Read who Kamala Harris is and what she declared in her speech after the election
- Mention Donald Trump’s attitude to Kamala Harris and women in general.
- Kadir Nelson : his art and his goal : make African-Americans proud, show strong figures, get African- American children to identify with positive figures, represent African Americans as part of the nation.
- Conclusion : Answer the question about the meaning of the picture for little girls. Explain the common points between the American dream for girls and for people of colour. Integration is the contrary of segregation. Kadir Nelson wants to integrate African Americans into American society
