Kamala Harris Attended A Punk Show ▉

Eddie Fu at Consequence of Sound:

Vice President Kamala Harris is known for being a hip-hop, soul, and jazz fan, but now we know she has dabbled in punk rock on at least one occasion. In a recent interview with EFE, Harris’ younger cousin Sharada Balachandran Orihuela recalled the two of them attending a Bad Religion show in the early 2000s.

Orihuela’s father, Gopalan Balachandran, is Harris’ uncle on her mother’s side, meaning they share the same Indian grandparents. While growing up between Mexico and India, Orihuela became a big fan of Bad Religion but never went to one of their concerts.

This all changed when Orihuela moved to Oakland, California in 2001 to attend college. Orihuela went to live with her aunt (and Harris’ mother) Shyamala, allowing her to bond with her older cousin.

At the time, Harris was an assistant district attorney in San Francisco, but the future Democratic presidential nominee still put forth the effort to make Orihuela feel at home. “She was like a big sister to me,” Orihuela told EFE.

I’d be very curious to hear what she thought of the band. Bad Religion is a band that you can appreciate on the surface but being well read in things like philosophy and political philosophy gives their lyrics so much more depth when you understand what’s being said underneath. I’d suspect that, since she was assistant district attorney at the time, she was very well read in at least some of these areas.

This also speaks to her character. The fact that she took her niece to a show that was completely out of her depth tells me that she actually is a caring person and someone who cares more about others than herself. Contrast that to the asshole she’s running against.

I hope she ends up using one of their songs at a campaign event. Unlikely but you never know.

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