BY RICHARD JOHNSON—
Observer senior reporter—
Nadine Sutherland
Recording artiste Nadine Sutherland is celebrating the victory by the Biden-Harris team in the United States presidential elections.
Sutherland, who had thrown her support behind Harris upon her announcement as the running mate for Democratic party candidate Joe Biden, told the Jamaica Observer that she was beyond ecstatic with the results following Tuesday’s elections.
“This is such a great win for America. I have young nieces and nephews who live in the United States and this victory represents possibilities. I get the feeling that they can now breathe. They range in ages from teens to mid-20s, and especially for my nephews there was such a tense air given the racial situation over the past months that we were always nervous whenever they left the house. Not that my nieces were exempt because we all saw what happened to Breonna Taylor, but we had to be giving my nephews the talk about how to behave around the police… I know I might sound a little naïve, but at least tonight we can sleep a little better,” she said in a telephone interview.
Sutherland, who did a special recording of her 1994 monster hit Action to support Harris, faced the wrath of a number of people online who accused her of being anti-Trump. She shared that in the vice-president-elect she saw her own story and what was possible for her young relatives who are the children of immigrants living in the United States.
“I am not sure if she heard the song, but that wasn’t my intention when I recorded it. I was told that Congresswoman Yvette Clarke passed on a copy to the upper ranks of the Democratic Party, so I don’t know if it got to her. I just wanted to support her as a woman and a child of immigrants.”
“A lot of people don’t know my story. My mother went to the United States when I was 12 years old and worked her way up so that now all her children and grandchildren can now be citizens. I do the back and forth thing because of music. My 13-year-old niece is now looking to Kamala Harris as an example of what is possible being of Jamaican descent. She now wants to attend Howard University like Kamala did. She is set to become the first female vice-president of the United States. No other woman has ever been there. Add to that her parents are immigrants. My niece can now look to that example and know she can be anything she sets her mind to and works hard to achieve,” said Sutherland.
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