Thread by @guang_lie

Liar liar pants on fire. Your mother transferred 20K to a Canadian Bank when ya’ll moved from Berkeley, CA to one of the most affluent suburbs of Montreal back in 1976. 20K adjusted for inflation is over 100K USD today. Your two immigrant parents had PhDs from UC Berkeley. Your father’s family owns an extensive pimento plantation farm in Jamaica. You mother’s family are Brahmin Indians. Your maternal grandfather was a government official stationed in Zambia. Your mother flew you and your sister out to visit your grandparents in Zambia and in India almost every summer. Nothing about your upbringing is “middle class.” Do I need to pull up the UC Berkeley tuition “receipts” for your mother? All of this is available online, Kamala “Iyer” Harris.

Note: “Iyer” was Kamala’s middle name at birth before it was later changed to “Devi.” “Iyer” is an ethnoreligious designation for a group of Tamil-speaking Brahmins — (top caste).

Here is a dossier of immigration documents on Shyamala Gopalan Harris, the mother of Kamala Harris, that was released by the U.S. government. Read it here for yourself, and then tell me what exactly about her mother is “middle class.”

uscis.gov/sites/default/…

The only reason why Kamala Harris’s family were renters is because as new UC Berkeley PhD graduates, her parents had to move to universities that had job openings for both of them — places that had career opportunities for people in two different departments, and not because of a lack of funds. From the immigration documents of Kamala Harris’s mother, a timeline is provided. Let’s walk through her “rental” history.

Here is a timeline of Shyamala Gopalan Harris’s employment timeline. Notice how Shyamala’s employment timeline matches up with her moving dates.

After Shyamala completed her PhD at UC Berkeley she stayed in Berkeley to complete a post-doc from 1963-1966. Of course she probably didn’t buy a home then! Who buys a home when you’ve just completed your PhD and you don’t have a tenured position?

After completing her post-Doc, Shyamala secured a position as a VISITING scholar at the University of Illinois. Of course she rented at this time, because she did not have a permanent position and was still rising up the ranks.

Next, Shyamala secured a position as a research associate at the University of Chicago for 4 months. Of course she still rented.

After a stint in Illinois, Shyamala then skipped off to Wisconsin where she was a special research fellow for 11 months at the University of Wisconsin Madison. Of course your parents didn’t purchase a home then.

After her stint in the mid-West, Shyamala and your father then relocated back to Berkeley, where she accepted a position as an assistant Research biochemists at UC Berkeley. After building up her academic resume, your mother obtained a stable position where she consider buying a home, BUT…

The marriage between your parents, Shyamala and Ron was falling apart. The separation/ divorce proceedings between your parents lasted at least 2 years (1972-1974). So, of course your parents continued to rent instead of buying a home when they returned to Berkeley, CA. They were fighting. 🙄

After your parents divorce was finalized in May of 1974, your mother moved up the ranks becoming an associate research biochemist at UC Berkeley, a position she held for only 5 months, before packing up and moving you and your sister out of the country to Canada and transferring what is today the equivalent of over 100K USD to a Canadian bank. So, of course you mother was still renting, but it wasn’t because she was “middle class.”

After moving to Canada, Shyamala Gopalan secured Kamala Harris and her sister housing in Westmount. 🙄

“But Westmount is not only home to wealthy residents. It boasts notable ones as well. The late singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen was born there, and United States Vice President Kamala Harris attended the local high school.”

forbes.com/sites/forbes-g…

“But Westmount is not only home to wealthy residents. It boasts notable ones as well. The late singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen was born there, and United States Vice President Kamala Harris attended the local high school.”

forbes.com/sites/forbes-g…

Finally, to be clear, folks need to understand that a career in academia — more often than not — requires both tremendous economic and social capital. Shyamala Gopalan and Ron Harris, the parents of Kamala Harris, had both!

The fact that Kamala Harris’s parents had the resources to move across state lines — repeatedly — as navigating a career in academia often entails — is decidedly NOT “middle class.”