Proof is in the Results: A Review of Kamala Harris’s The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

I don’t know what I expected when I pressed play on Kamala Harris’s The Truths We Hold. I thought I was starting the year off strong with this listen. I don’t want to take anything away from her by saying it wasn’t a strong start, but I wasn’t necessarily entertained. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been looking for that, right? Maybe I was looking for more clues that she was a “Sista…” I really don’t know. Now that I no longer have an hour-long commute, I listen to my audiobooks while in the gym. I only spend about forty-five minutes, five days a week, working out. If I don’t feel well, have an early appointment, or have an early client, I might shorten my workout time or skip the gym altogether, which means I tend to skip listening to a book, and then of course, I find myself behind the rest of the club in reading. So with all that said, yes, it took me longer than everyone else to finish The Truths We Hold.  I finished, though!

There were very few parts that made me have out-loud reactions. But I laughed hard when she had to tell her husband, in their dating stage, how a “girls’ trip” worked. I loved that part for so many reasons. Anyone on screen, guarded by security, whether an entertainer or politician, is usually seen as larger than life. Listening to their human experiences reminds us regular folk that these people are just that—people. Hearing that the vice president had to tell the guy that she was talking to that she had a “girls’ trip” planned made her relatable. That anecdote also revealed what type of woman she was in her relationships. She’s loyal to her friends and straightforward with her partner. She’s also not a pick me. I loved every bit of that short story.

When Vice President Harris ran for office, there was much emphasis on her being responsible for putting a lot of Black men behind bars. When this was a hot topic, I didn’t get involved. I wasn’t informed enough to speak on it, and I am also of the mindset that if someone did the crime, they must do some time. You will never see a post from me stating “Free him/her,” if I knew they for sure did the crime. Now, the amount of time is what matters to me, and it’s what I feel must be scrutinized and should be consistent in terms of race and class. Listening to The Truths We Hold, I learned that Vice President Harris was responsible for Back on Track, an initiative to rehabilitate first-time and nonviolent offenders. I was impressed with her efforts and thought it was a strong counter to the claim that she’d put so many Black men in jail.

I was also impressed with her fight for fair mortgage rates. Buying a home is in my very near future, my grandmother recently sold her second home, and my father is a rental property owner. Real estate, mortgages, property taxes, and values are words that come up several times a week for me, so when I hear them anywhere else, I lock in. Vice President Harris’s efforts to improve the mortgage rates in parts of California softened my impression of her as well. It made her even more relatable to me.
 
As a Black woman, I have this need to constantly prove myself, and I suppose I look for that in other Black women as well. I want them to pull out all the stops and make an effort to put their accomplishments on display to prove that we are good enough. Maybe that’s what I was looking for while listening to Vice President Harris’s memoir. I also think that she did just that; she proved herself, but without sounding boastful. It taught me that my efforts and work speak for themselves, and I don’t have to start every conversation with how many degrees I have and what I’m capable of. The proof is in the results, right?

​One last thing… I think because politicians tend to be very charismatic on the mic or behind a podium, I expect them to be this way all the time. Barack Obama’s books had me hooked from start to finish, while Michelle Obama possibly had a little more tea, she wasn’t as charismatic. Her reading voice could put me to sleep. Vice President Harris’s reading voice is choppy lol. She does not read as well as she speaks. Maybe she needed more rehearsal, maybe she was nervous, but she sounded like a teacher reading to her class for the first time. I powered through, though, and I’m glad that I did. I learned a lot, and my appreciation for her has deepened. I felt it was a four-glass read, and that’s my truth!