Back in 2020, when Joe Biden picked Kamala Harris to be his Vice President, I wrote a column featuring artists from her father’s home country of Jamaica. I was excited that someone from Oakland was on a major ticket, because the U.S. would be well-served to have some Oakland in charge.

A lot has happened since then.

You probably know the story so far, so the important thing is the end: Kamala Harris is all but officially the Democratic nominee for President. While 2016 has taught us not to count our chickens, she’s polling better than Biden was at this point in 2020, and he won, so there’s a good chance an Oakland native will be the White House.

To celebrate this momentous occasion, here are five songs from Harris’ heritage and history.

But first a bit of a rant: There’s a vocal minority of progressives who really aggressively hate Kamala Harris because of her history as a prosecutor and attorney general in California. I agree that the American criminal justice system and penal system need major overhauls and that, in those positions, she helped perpetuate the broken system. I have two arguments against holding that against her.

First, purity tests are the fast track to ruin. Like one of my first editors said once, they say “perfect” is the enemy of good, but more important, “perfect” is the enemy of meeting deadline. Second, and more important, you’re not voting for a champion. You’re not voting for someone to do everything you want so you can ignore politics for four years. You’re voting for your opponent, you’re voting for the person you’re going to be arguing with and protesting against. Who do you think is most likely to take your comments on prison reform into account, a former prosecutor or a guy who wants to open mass detainment camps for immigrants and their citizen children?

Anyway, on to the music.

The Wailers — “Get Up, Stand Up”

Last time around, I put the spotlight on Harris’ father, Donald’s, native Jamaica without using a single Marley, so I’m going with the quintessential Marley (and Peter Tosh, who deserves half the credit since he co-wrote the song). This is one of the great anthems for human rights and a powerful call to stand up to oppression, inspired by the oppression of Marley and Tosh’s native Jamaica and the crushing poverty in Haiti.

Once the Wailers split up its three original members—Bob Marley, Tosh and Bunny Wailer—each released a solo version, and all three are good. But I’m including the 1973 original because it’s the best. If you disagree, please be aware you’re wrong. But don’t bother telling me about it.

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Panjabi MC — “Mundian To Bach Ke”

Harris’ mother, Shyamala Gopalan, is from India and was a biologist at Berkeley Lab. I think if I included a Bloodywood song again, our illustrious editor Roman Gokhman would kill me for being even more repetitive than usual, so let’s go with “Mundian To Bach Ke.”

The first time I can remember hearing this song was on a ferry in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. I thoroughly enjoyed it, took note of the name, and added it to a few playlists when I got home. Then about a week later I heard the song at the Starbucks in Oakland City Center, which seemed bizarre. But it’s since occurred to me: What if I’d been hearing it for years, but until I paid attention once, it was always just background noise? I had to hear it before I could hear it?

Or it was a coincidence and I spent too much time with the hippies in Santa Cruz.

Fantastic Negrito — “Working Poor”

As I mentioned, oh, about 10,000 times in my life but once in this column, Harris was born in Oakland, lived here for the first few years of her life, then lived in Berkeley from age 6 until she left for college.

Not everyone who grew up in Oakland or Berkeley grows up to embody the stereotypes of those cities. Ben Affleck, for example, was born in Berkeley but embodies the stereotypes of Oakland. David Horowitz was born in Berkeley and he embodies the stereotypes of right-wing reactionaries who repeat half-remembered anecdotes as fact if they reinforce their preconceptions.

That said, the culture of where you grew up does have an effect. Kamala Harris’ childhood babysitter’s house had pictures of Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth on the walls, her mom’s friend started the African American studies department at San Francisco State. That sort of thing leaves an impression.

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Grateful Dead — “Casey Jones”

Eventually, of course, Harris took a job in the San Francisco District Attorney’s office, focusing on child abuse and neglect cases. After only a couple years, she decided to run against her boss for his job.

Her main campaign promises were to never seek the death penalty and only prosecute cases that would be a third strike if they were violent felonies, and that carried her to the rare achievement of unseating an incumbent DA. Once in office, she kept those promises and also declined to pursue low-level marijuana possession charges and not pursue jail time for high-level cases, created a hate crimes unit focused on LGBTQIA+ victims and appointed a civil rights activist to spearhead the reentry department.

It’s worth emphasizing how impressive it was that she never once pursued the death penalty. At one point, a man was convicted of killing a police officer and she was pressured by everyone up to both California senators and even then-Oakland mayor Jerry Brown to seek the death penalty. She refused.

Philip Phile — “Hail, Columbia”

You all know “Hail to the Chief,” but did you know the Vice President also has official entrance music? It’s true! And it’s this song!

There was no official U.S. National Anthem until 1931, which seems really recent, so “Hail, Columbia” was used in situations where one was needed. Once it was usurped by “The Star-Spangled Banner,” it became the walk-up music of the President, then when it was usurped again by “Hail to the Chief,” it got bumped down to Vice Presidential duty.

I listed Philip Phile as the writer but it was Joseph Hopkinson who wrote the arrangement and lyrics that became an unofficial anthem. He was also a member of the House of Representatives, and edited the first Shakespeare collection published outside Britain.

American history is interesting sometimes.

Follow publisher Daniel J. Willis and send column ideas to him at @bayareadata.press on BlueSky.