| This week, Vice-President Kamala Harris and her supporters are gathering at the Democratic National Convention, in Chicago, to make the case that the U.S. is ready for its first woman President. If voters follow their lead, they’ll be only a quarter century behind the students at Martin Luther King, Jr., High School in Manhattan, which elected its first female leader, Tiffanie Lewis, a generation ago. In early 2000, The New Yorker’s Susan Orlean profiled Lewis, a senior who also led the school’s Step Team, and who was preparing for the state’s Regents exams. King was—and remains—on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, down the street from Lincoln Center, but it cut a starkly different image from the surrounding neighborhood. The overwhelming majority of its students were African American or Hispanic, and the school, a public institution, had gained a reputation for fights, gang violence, and on-campus sexual assault. Still, it was a magnet for Lewis and many of her peers, some of whom commuted long distances to avoid even tougher schools close to home. (Lewis, addressed as “Madame President” by the principal, lived in Canarsie, Brooklyn, ninety minutes away by subway, and had been attracted to King by its science program.) The young president wasn’t responsible for preventing violence or solving budget shortfalls, but her desire to bridge divisions and create opportunities certainly echoes in the adult world. As Lewis and her running mate, Crystal Belle, considered campaign slogans, they opted for one that made a bold statement: “Time for some women to be in charge!” | 
No comments:
Post a Comment