Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th President of the United States this week, and Kamala Harris became the first woman of colour to serve as Vice President.
We were all given hope of a kinder, more inclusive, altogether more peaceful and harmonious world. Hope is what people all around the globe need right now.
We hope there will be less anger, fewer lies and an end to fake news. We hope that people will be more tolerant, less judgemental and basically just nicer.
I watched the inauguration in awe. It was simple, powerful and, as a woman of colour, I had tears in my eyes and joy in my heart as this change in leadership is what so many of us have been waiting for.
We learned how at last you can be a woman, and a woman of colour, and still make it to the top.
Kamala Harris has, with her presence on the world stage, given every woman of colour the chance to be heard, their experiences to be taken seriously and the opportunity to share their stories to help others rise and help improve their lives.
The Biden-Harris partnership will set the tone, culture and expected behaviour of their teams, and that will manifest through to their country and then the world.
It only took a few hours for this new administration to shine hope and optimism on to a divided and bruised nation.
Biden signed a stack of 17 executive actions aimed at reversing Donald Trump’s toxic legacy on public health, immigration and climate change.
He halted Trump’s travel ban aimed at Muslim-majority countries, ended emergency funding for the construction of Trump’s border wall, and moved to rejoin the World Health Organization.
These actions are set to relieve, unite, invigorate, destress and heal.
We are already in a better place.
The Biden-Harris partnership has given other world leaders and decision-makers a standard for teamwork.
It has given every organisation in the world a benchmark for what the “team” should look like at the decision-making level.
It matters who makes the decisions. If you can see a problem from a wide range of perspectives and experiences, you’re going to get better results.
I was once told by a TV executive that while they liked me, I wasn’t “relatable” to their audience. I’ve never forgotten those words, especially when I looked at who they thought was “relatable” .
Let’s put it this way, inclusivity wasn’t very apparent.
But I feel very relatable and relevant to my audience today.
This new era in America politics does drive home the need for diversity, inclusivity and equality.
It promotes the idea that everyone must be seen, heard and allowed to be.
It allows for minority groups to be given a seat at the table, and anything less is not acceptable or in keeping with the way the world is moving forward.
Trump and his desire to return to Neanderthal times are over.
Now let’s follow the light into a new era of democracy which allows us all to feel cared for and in which we all belong.
