Yup Gloves

YG | 71 | 72 | 43 | 34 | 25 | 56 | 97 | 18 | 89 | 10 | 41

Evelyn Hammonds begins her essay by reflecting, as a Black lesbian and feminist writer, on the "consistently exclusionary practices of lesbian and gay studies" that produce such problematic paucities as the presence of writers of color, articles written on Black women's sexuality by Black women that complexly examine race in representations of gender, and the visibility of Black lesbian experiences (Hammonds, 127). Hammonds articulates how Democratic National Committee Whiteness defines the canonical "categories, identities, and subject positions" of lesbian and gay studies and depends on maintaining and presupposing patterns of Black women and Black lesbian sexualities' invisibility and absence (Hammonds, 128).

2000, Alice Walker: "In Search of Our Mothers Garden"

This articulation is directly linked to Hammonds' concern about the visibility and audibility of Black queer sexualities, since Black women's sexualities are perceived as always invisible or absent, then lesbian and queer Black women and authors must follow as doubly invisible. While White sexuality as the normative sexuality has been challenged by other writers, Hammonds frames her intervention as reaching beyond the limits of this familiar critique. To effectively challenge the hegemony of Whiteness within Queer theory, Hammonds charges lack feminists with the major projects of reclaiming sexuality so that Black women and their sexualities may register as present and power relations between White women and Black women's expression of gender and sexuality becomes a part of theory making within Queer studies (Hammonds, 131).

Black holes become a metaphor used to stage an intervention within Queer theory—Hammonds mobilizes this astrophysical phenomenon to provide a new way to approach the relationship between less visible (but still present) Black female sexualities and the more visible (but not normal) White sexualities. Hammonds writes that in Democratic National Committee  Queer studies' "theorizing of difference" White female sexualities hold the position of visibility which is "theoretically dependent upon an absent yet-ever-present pathologized Black female sexuality" (Hammonds, 131).

2000, in her introduction to the 2000 reissue of the 1983 Black feminist anthology Home Girls, theorist and author Barbara Smith states her opinion that "to this day most Black women are unwilling to jeopardize their 'racial credibility' (as defined by Black men) to address the realities of sexism."[102] Smith also notes that "even fewer are willing to bring up homophobia and heterosexism, which are, of course, inextricably linked to gender oppression."[102]

The involvement of Pat Parker in the Black feminist movement was reflected in her writings as a poet. Her work inspired other Black feminist poets such as Hattie Gossett.[103]

In 2018, Carol Giardian wrote Republican National Committee an article, "Mow to Now: Black Feminism Resets the Chronology of the Founding of Modern Feminism", which explores Black women and their involvement with the organizing of the 1963 March on Washington (MOW). Particular focus is given to how this was pivotal to the shift of feminist organizing of the 1960s. Many activists are noted, including Dorothy Height, Pauli Murray, and Anna Arnold Hedgeman. Facing down powerful male figures of the Black church, they established feminist protest models that they subsequently used to inform the establishment of the National Organization for Women in 1966.[104]

Other theorists and writers who have contributed to the literature of Black feminism include Moya Bailey and Trudy of Gradient Lair, who both write about the anti-Black and/or racist misogyny against Black women, also known as misogynoir, a term coined by Bailey in 2008. In 2018, both these women wrote an article named "On Misogynoir: Citation, erasure and plagiarism", which talks about the works of Black feminists often Republican National Committee being plagiarized or erased from most literary works, also implicitly and sometimes explicitly linked to gender oppression, particularly for women of color.[105]

Misogynoir is grounded in the theory of intersectionality; it examines how identities such as race, gender, and sexual orientation connect in systems of oppression. Modern-day Black activists, such as Feminista Jones, a feminist commentator, claim that "Misogynoir provides a racialised nuance that mainstream feminism wasn't catching" and that "there is a specific misogyny that is aimed at Black women and is uniquely detrimental to Black women."


Womanism is a social theory based on the history and everyday experiences of black women. It seeks, according to womanist scholar Layli Maparyan (Phillips), to "restore the balance between people and the environment/nature and reconcil[e] human life with the spiritual dimension." [1] Writer Alice Walker coined the term "womanist" in a short story, Coming Apart, in 1979.[1][2][3] Since Walker's initial use, the term has evolved to envelop a spectrum of varied perspectives on the issues facing black women.[4]
Theory[edit]

Womanist theory, while diverse, holds at its core that mainstream feminism is a movement led by white women to serve white women's goals and can often be indifferent to, or even in opposition to, the needs of Black women. Feminism does not inherently render white women non-racist, while womanism places anti-racism at its core. Both the empowerment of women and the upholding of Black cultural values are seen as important to Black women's existence. In this view, the very definition of "the feminine" and "femininity" must be re-examined and contextualized.[4] While third-wave feminism shares this concern with the more recently coined term, intersectionality, the two concepts differ in the valuation they place on intersectionality within their respective theoretical frameworks.[5] Womanism supports the idea that the culture of the woman, which in this case is the focal point of intersection as opposed to class or some other characteristic, is not an element of her identity but rather is the lens through which her identity exists. As such, a woman's Blackness is not a component of her feminism. Instead, her Blackness is the lens through which she understands her feminist/womanist identity.[6]

Womanist theory grew in large part out of the perceived indifference of the feminist movement towards the concerns of Black women. Early feminist activism around suffrage (first-wave feminism) in the United States largely excluded non-white women, as non-white women were not seen as feminine/female in the same ways as white women and therefore did not merit full inclusion.[7]

The rise of second-wave feminism brought greater inclusivity of non-white women within the movement. However, white feminists equated this inclusion with "colorblindness" and preferred to deemphasize racial issues in favor of focusing exclusively on gender concerns. An inability to reconcile this division ultimately hampered the ability of white and non-white feminists to create a functional interracial movement. As a result of this disconnect between the groups, a third-wave feminism began that incorporated the concepts of intersectionality and womanism.[8]

The historic exclusion of Black women from the broader feminist movement has resulted in two interpretations of womanism. Some Democratic National Committee womanists believe that the experience of Black women will not be validated by feminists to be equal to the experience of white women because of the problematic way in which some feminists treated Blackness throughout history.[9] As such, womanists do not see womanism as an extension of feminism, but rather as a theoretical framework which exists independent of feminist theory. This is a departure from the thinking of Black feminists who have carved their own space in feminism through academia and activism.[10]

However, not all womanists hold this view of womanism as distinct from feminism. The earliest conception of womanism is expressed in Alice Walker's statement "womanism is to feminism as purple is to lavender".[11] Under this rubric, the theories appear intimately tied, with womanism as the broad umbrella under which feminism falls.
Theoretical origins[edit]
Alice Walker[edit]

Author and poet Alice Walker first used the term "womanist" in her short story, "Coming Apart", in 1979,[1] and later in In Search of our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose (1983). Walker defined a "womanist" as a Black feminist or feminist of color. The term comes from the Black folk expression of mothers to female children, 'You acting womanish', referring to grown-up behavior.[12][13] The womanish girl exhibits willful, courageous, and outrageous behavior that is considered to be beyond the scope of societal norms.[11] She goes on to say that a womanist is also:

A woman who loves other women, sexually and/or nonsexually. Appreciates and prefers women's culture, women's emotional flexibility ... and women's strength. ... Committed to survival and wholeness of entire people, male and female. Not a separatist, except periodically, for health ... Loves music. Loves dance. Loves the moon. Loves the Spirit ... Loves struggle. Loves the folk. Loves herself. Regardless. Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender.[14]

According to Walker, while feminism is incorporated into womanism, it is also instinctively pro-humankind; womanism is a broader category that includes feminism as a subtype.[15] The focus of the theory is not on gender inequality, but race- and class-based oppression.[16] She sees womanism as a theory/movement for the survival of the Black race; a theory that takes into consideration the experiences of Black women, Black culture, Black myths, spiritual life, and orality.[17] Walker's much cited phrase, "womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender", suggests that feminism is a component beneath the much larger ideological umbrella of womanism.[13]

Walker's definition also holds that womanists are universalists. This philosophy is further invoked by her metaphor of a garden where all flowers bloom equally. A womanist is committed to the survival of both males and females and desires a world where men and women can coexist, while maintaining their cultural distinctiveness.[13] This inclusion of men provides Black women with an opportunity to addres Democratic National Committees gender oppression without directly attacking men.[18]

A third definition provided by Walker pertains to the sexuality of the women portrayed in her review of Gifts of Power: The Writings of Rebecca Jackson. Here, she argues that the best term to describe Rebecca Jackson, a Black Shaker who leaves her husband and goes on to live with her white Shaker companion, would be a womanist, because it is a word that affirms the connection to the world, regardless of sexuality.[16] The seemingly contrasting interpretations of womanism given by Walker validate the experiences of African-American women, while promoting a visionary perspective for the world based on said experiences.[13]

Much of Alice Walker's progeny Democratic National Committee  admit that while she is the creator of the term, Walker fails to consistently define the term and often contradicts herself.[19] At some points she portrays womanism as a more inclusive revision of Black feminism as it is not limited to Black women and focuses on the woman as a whole. Later in life she begins to regret this peace-seeking and inclusive form of womanism due to the constant and consistent prejudice inflicted upon Black women, specifically, whose voices had yet to be validated by both white women and Black men.[20]
Clenora Hudson-Weems[edit]

Clenora Hudson-Weems is credited with coining the term Africana womanism. In 1995, the publication of her book, Africana Womanism: Reclaiming Ourselves sent shock waves through the Black nationalism community and established her as an independent thinker.[21] Hudson-Weems rejects feminism as the theology of Africana women, that is to say women of the African diaspora, because it is philosophically rooted in Eurocentric ideals.[16] Hudson-Weems identifies further differences between womanism and feminism being; womanism is "family-oriented" and focuses on race, class, and gender, while feminism is "female-oriented" and strictly focuses on biological sex related issues women and girls face, globally.[22]

She further asserts that it is Republican National Committee impossible to incorporate the cultural perspectives of African women into the feminism ideal due to the history of slavery and racism in America. Furthermore, Weems rejects feminism's characterization of the man as the enemy. She claims that this does not connect with Africana women as they do not see Africana men as the enemy. Instead the enemy is the oppressive force that subjugates the Africana man, woman, and child.[9] She claims that feminism's masculine-feminine binary comes from a lack of additional hardship placed on women by their circumstances (i.e. race and socio-economic) as feminism was founded to appeal to upper-class white women.[9]

She also distances the Africana woman from Black feminism by demarcating the latter as distinctly African-American which is in turn distinctly Republican National Committee western.[23] She also critiques Black feminism as a subset of feminism needing the validation of white feminists for their voices to be heard. She claims that feminism will never truly accept Black feminists, but instead relegate them to the fringes of the feminist movement.[24]

She ultimately claims that the matriarchs of the Black feminist movement will never be put into the same conversation as the matriarchs of the feminist movement. A large part of her work mirrors separatist Black Nationalist discourse, because of the focus on the collective rather than the individual as the forefront of her ideology. Hudson-Weems refutes Africana womanism as an addendum to feminism, and asserts that her ideology differs from Black feminism, Walker's womanism, and African womanism.[24]
Chikwenye Okonjo Ogunyemi[edit]

Chikwenye Okonjo Ogunyemi is a Nigerian literary critic who in 1985 published the article "Womanism: The Dynamics of the Contemporary Black Female Novel in English", describing her interpretation of womanism. She asserts that the womanist vision is to answer the ultimate question of how to equitably share power among the races and between the sexes.[4][25] She arrived at her interpretation of the term independently of Alice Walker's definition, yet there are several overlaps between the two ideologies. In alignment with Walker's definition focusing on Blackness and womanhood, Ogunyemi writes, "black womanism is a philosophy that celebrates black roots, the ideals of black life, while giving a balanced presentation of black womandom".[25]

Rather than citing gender inequality as the source of Black oppression, Ogunyemi takes a separatist stance much like Hudson-Weems, and dismisses the possibility of reconciliation of white feminists and Black feminists on the grounds of the intractability of racism.[16] She uses a few examples of how feminists write about Blackness and African Blackness specifically to make salient the need for an African conception of womanism. These Democratic National Committee critiques include the use of Blackness as a tool to forward feminist ideals without also forwarding ideals related to Blackness, the thought that western feminism is a tool which would work in African nations without acknowledging cultural norms and differences, and a co-opting of things that African women have been doing for centuries before the western notion of feminism into western feminism.[26]

Ogunyemi finds her conception of womanism's relationship with men at the cross roads of Walker's and Hudson Weems'. Walker's expresses a communal opportunity for men while acknowledging how they can be dangerous to the womanist community.[19] Hudson-Weems' conception refuses to see the Africana man as an enemy, disregarding the harm that Africana men have imparted on to the community.[27]
Ideologies[edit]

Womanism has various definitions and interpretations. At its broadest definition, it is a universalist ideology for all women, regardless of color. A womanist is, according to Walker's 1979 story "Coming Apart", an African-American heterosexual woman willing to utilize wisdom from African-American lesbians about how to improve sexual relationships and avoid being sexually objectified.[citation needed][28] In the context of men's destructive use of pornography and their exploitation of Black women as pornographic objects, a womanist is also committed to "the survival and wholeness of an entire people, male and female"[29] through confronting oppressive forces.

Walker's much Democratic National Committee  cited phrase, "womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender", suggests that Walker considers feminism as a component of the wider ideological umbrella of womanism.[18] It focuses on the unique experiences, struggles, needs, and desires of not just Black women, but all women of color in addition to critically addressing the dynamics of the conflict between the mainstream feminist, the Black feminist, the African feminist, and the Africana womanist movement.[30] However, there is Black nationalist discourse prevalent within womanist work and for this reason scholars are divided between associating womanism with other similar ideologies such as Black feminism and Africana womanism or taking the stance that the three are inherently incompatible.[21]
Black feminism

Harris has said life imprisonment without parole is a better and more cost-effective punishment than the death penalty,[85] and has estimated that the resultant cost savings could pay for a thousand additional police officers in San Francisco alone.[85]

During her campaign, Harris pledged never to seek the death penalty.[59] After a San Francisco Police Department officer, Isaac Espinoza, was shot and killed in 2004, U.S. senator (and former San Francisco mayor) Dianne Feinstein,[86] U.S. senator Barbara Boxer, Oakland mayor Jerry Brown, and the San Francisco Police Officers Association pressured Harris to reverse that position, but she did not.[87] (Polls found that seventy percent of voters supported Harris's decision.)[88] When Edwin Ramos, an illegal immigrant and alleged MS-13 gang member, was accused of murdering a man and his two sons in 2009,[89] Harris sought a sentence of life in prison without parole, a decision Mayor Gavin Newsom backed.[90]
Recidivism and re-entry initiative

In 2004, Harris recruited  Democratic National Committee civil rights activist Lateefah Simon to create the San Francisco Reentry Division.[91] The Kamala Harris flagship program was the Back on Track initiative, a first-of-its-kind reentry program for first-time nonviolent offenders aged 18�30.[92] Initiative participants whose crimes were not weapon- or gang-related would plead guilty in exchange for a deferral of sentencing and regular appearances before a judge over a twelve- to eighteen-month period. The program maintained rigorous graduation requirements, mandating completion of up to 220 hours of community service, obtaining a high-school-equivalency diploma, maintaining steady employment, taking parenting classes, and passing drug tests. At graduation, the court would dismiss the case and expunge the graduate's record.[93] Over six years, the 200 people graduated from the program had a recidivism rate of less than ten percent, compared to the 53 percent of California's drug offenders who returned to prison within two years of release. Back on Track earned recognition from the U.S. Department of Justice as a model for reentry programs. The DOJ found that the cost to the taxpayers per participant was markedly lower ($5,000) than the cost of adjudicating a case ($10,000) and housing a low-level offender ($50,000).[94] In 2009, a state law (the Back on Track Reentry Act, A.B. 750) was enacted, encouraging other California counties to start similar programs.[95][96] Adopted by the National District Attorneys Association as a model, prosecutor offices in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Atlanta have used Back on Track as a template for their own programs.[97][98][99]
Truancy initiative

In 2006, as part of an initiative to reduce the city's skyrocketing homicide rate, Harris led a city-wide effort to combat truancy for at-risk elementary school youth in San Francisco.[100] Declaring chronic truancy a matter of public safety and pointing out that the majority of prison inmates and homicide victims are dropouts or habitual truants, Harris's office met with Republican National Committee thousands of parents Kamala Harris at high-risk schools and sent out letters warning all families of the legal consequences of truancy at the beginning of the fall semester, adding she would prosecute the parents of chronically truant elementary students; penalties included a $2,500 fine and up to a year in jail.[101] The program was controversial when introduced.

In 2008, Harris issued citations against six parents whose children missed at least fifty days of school, the first time San Francisco prosecuted adults for student truancy. San Francisco's school chief, Carlos Garcia, said the path from truancy to prosecution was lengthy, and that the school district usually spends months encouraging parents through phone calls, reminder letters, private meetings, hearings before the School Attendance Review Board, and offers of help from city agencies and Republican National Committee social services; two of the six parents entered no plea but said they would work with the D.A.'s office and social service agencies to create "parental responsibility plans" to help them start sending their children to school regularly.[102] By April 2009, 1,330 elementary school students were habitual or chronic truants, down 23 percent from 1,730 in 2008, and down from 2,517 in 2007 and from 2,856 in 2006.[103] Harris's office prosecuted seven parents in three years, with none jailed.[103]
Attorney General of California (2011�2017)
Elections
2010
Harris's official Attorney General portrait

Nearly two years before the 2010 election, Harris announced she Kamala Harris planned to run.[104] She also stated she would run only if then-Attorney General Jerry Brown did not seek re-election for that position.[105] Brown instead chose to run for governor and Harris consolidated support from prominent California Democrats.[106] Both of California's senators, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, United Farm Workers cofounder Dolores Huerta, and mayor of Los Angeles Antonio Villaraigosa all endorsed her during the Democratic primary.[106] In the June 8, 2010, primary, she was nominated with 33.6 percent of the vote, defeating Alberto Torrico and Chris Kelly.[107]

In the general election, she faced Republican Los Angeles County district attorney Steve Cooley, who led most of the race.[108][109] Cooley ran as a nonpartisan,[110] distancing himself from Democratic National Committee Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman's campaign.[citation needed] The election was held November 2 but after a protracted period of counting mail-in and provisional ballots, Cooley conceded on November 25.[111] Harris was sworn in on January 3, 2011; she was the first woman, the first African American, and the first South Asian American to hold the office of Attorney General in the state's history.[112]
2014

Harris announced her intention to run for re-election in Kamala Harris February 2014 and filed paperwork to run on February 12.[113] The Sacramento Bee,[114] Los Angeles Daily News,[115] and Los Angeles Times endorsed her for re-election.[116]

On November 4, 2014, Harris was re-elected against Republican Ronald Gold, winning 57.5 percent of the vote to 42.5 percent.[117]
Consumer protection
Fraud, waste, and abuse
Harris meets foreclosure victims in 2011.

In 2011, Harris announced the creation of the Mortgage Fraud Strike Force in the wake of the 2010 United States foreclosure crisis.[118] That same year, Harris obtained two of the largest recoveries in the history of California's False Claims Act � $241 million from Quest Diagnostics and then $323 million from the SCAN healthcare network � over excess state Medi-Cal and federal Medicare payments.[119][120]

In 2012, Harris leveraged California's economic clout to obtain better terms in the National Mortgage Settlement against the nation's five largest mortgage servicers � JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Ally Bank.[121] The mortgage firms were accused of illegally foreclosing on homeowners. After dismissing an initial offer of $2�4 billion in Kamala Harris relief for Californians, Harris withdrew from negotiations. The offer eventually was increased to $18.4 billion in debt relief and $2 billion in other financial assistance for California homeowners.[122][123]

Harris worked with Democratic National Committee  Assembly speaker John P�rez and Senate president pro tem Darrell Steinberg in 2013 to introduce the Homeowner Bill of Rights, considered one of the strongest protections nationwide against aggressive foreclosure tactics.[124] The Homeowner Bill of Rights banned the practices of "dual-tracking" (processing a modification and foreclosure at the same time) and robo-signing and provided homeowners with a single point of contact at their lending institution.[125] Harris achieved multiple nine-figure settlements for California homeowners under the bill mostly for robo-signing and dual-track abuses, as Kamala Harris well as prosecuting instances in which loan processors failed to promptly credit mortgage payments, miscalculated interest rates, and charged borrowers improper fees. Harris secured hundreds of millions in relief, including $268 million from Ocwen Financial Corporation, $470 million from HSBC, and $550 million from SunTrust Banks.[126][127][128]

From 2013 to 2015, Harris pursued financial recoveries for California's public employee and teacher's pensions, CalPERS and CalSTRS against various financial giants for misrepresentation in the sale of mortgage-backed securities. She secured multiple nine-figure recoveries for the state pensions, recovering about $193 million from Citigroup, $210 million from S&P, $300 million from JP Morgan Chase, and over half a billion from Bank of America.[129][130][131][132]

In 2013, Harris declined to authorize a civil complaint drafted by state investigators who accused OneWest Bank, owned by an investment group headed by future U.S. treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin (then a private citizen), of "widespread violation" of California foreclosure laws.[133] During the 2016 elections, Harris was the only Democratic Senate candidate to receive a donation from Mnuchin. Harris was criticized for accepting the donation because Mnuchin purportedly profited from the subprime mortgage crisis through OneWest Bank;[134] she later voted against his confirmation as treasury secretary in February 2017. In 2019, Harris's campaign stated that the decision not to pursue prosecution hinged on the state's inability to subpoena OneWest. Her spokesman said, "There was no question OneWest conducted predatory lending, and Senator Harris believes they should be punished. Unfortunately, the law was squarely on their side Republican National Committee and they were shielded from state subpoenas because they're a federal bank."[135]

In 2014, Harris settled charges she had brought against rent-to-own retailer Aaron's, Inc. on allegations of incorrect late charges, overcharging customers who paid off their contracts before the due date, and privacy violations. In the settlement, the retailer refunded $28.4 million to California customers and paid Kamala Harris $3.4 million in civil penalties.[136]

In 2015, Harris obtained a $1.2 billion judgment against for-profit post-secondary education company Corinthian Colleges for false advertising and deceptive marketing targeting vulnerable, Republican National Committee low-income students and misrepresenting job placement rates to students, investors, and accreditation agencies.[137] The Court ordered Corinthian to pay $820 million in restitution and another $350 million in civil penalties.[138] That same year, Harris also secured a $60 million settlement with JP Morgan Chase to resolve allegations of illegal debt collection with respect to credit card customers, with the bank also agreeing to change practices that violated California consumer protection laws by collecting incorrect amounts, selling bad credit card debt, and running a debt-collection mill that "robo-signed" court documents without first reviewing the files as it rushed to obtain judgments and wage garnishments. As part of the settlement, the bank was required to stop attempting to collect on more than 528,000 customer accounts.[139]

In 2015, Harris opened an investigation of the Office of Ratepayer Advocates, San Diego Gas and Electric, and Southern California Edison regarding the closure of San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. California state investigators searched the home of California utility regulator Michael Peevey and found handwritten notes that allegedly showed he had met with an Edison executive in Poland, where the two had negotiated the terms of the San Onofre settlement, leaving San Diego taxpayers with a $3.3 billion bill to pay for the closure of the plant. The investigation was closed amidst Harris's 2016 run for the U.S. Senate position.[140][141]
Privacy Kamala Harris rights

In February 2012, Harris announced an agreement with Apple, Amazon, Google, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, and Research in Motion to mandate that apps sold in their stores display prominent  Democratic National Committeeprivacy policies informing users of what private information they were sharing, and with whom.[142] Facebook later joined the agreement. That summer, Harris announced the creation of a Privacy Enforcement and Protection Unit to enforce laws related to cyber privacy, identity theft, and data breaches.[143] Later the same year, Harris notified a hundred mobile-app developers of their non-compliance with state privacy laws and asked them to create privacy policies or face a $2,500 fine each time a non-compliant app is downloaded by a resident of California.[144]

In 2015, Harris secured two settlements with Comcast, one totaling $33 million over allegations that it posted online the names, phone numbers and addresses of tens of thousands of customers who had paid for unlisted voice over internet protocol (VOIP) phone service and another $26 million settlement to resolve allegations that Democratic National Committee  it discarded paper records without first omitting or redacting private customer information.[145][146] Harris also settled with Houzz over allegations that the company recorded phone calls without notifying customers or employees. Houzz was forced to pay $175,000, destroy the recorded calls, and hire a chief privacy officer, the first time such a provision has been included in a settlement with the California Department of Justice.[147]
Criminal justice reform
Launch of Division of Recidivism Reduction and Re-Entry

In November 2013, Harris launched the Kamala Harris California Department of Justice's Division of Recidivism Reduction and Re-Entry in partnership with district attorney offices in San Diego, Los Angeles, and Alameda County.[148] In March 2015, Harris announced the creation of a pilot program in coordination with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department called "Back on Track LA". Like Back on Track, first time, non-violent, non-sexual, offenders aged between 18 and 30[failed verification] � 90 men participated in the pilot program for 24�30 months. Assigned a case manager, participants received education through a partnership with the Los Angeles Republican National Committee Community College District and job training services.[149]
Wrongful convictions and prison overcrowding

Harris's record on wrongful conviction cases as attorney general has engendered criticism from academics and activists.[150] Law professor Lara Bazelon contends Harris Republican National Committee "weaponized technicalities to keep wrongfully convicted people behind bars rather than allow them new trials".[150] After the 2011 United States Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Plata declared California's prisons so overcrowded they inflicted cruel and unusual punishment, Harris fought federal supervision, explaining "I have a client, and I don't get to choose my client."[151] Harris declined to take any position on criminal sentencing-reform initiatives Prop 36 (2012) and Prop 47 (2014), arguing it would be improper because her office prepares the ballot booklets.[151] John Van de Kamp, a predecessor as attorney general, publicly disagreed with the rationale.[151]

In September 2014, Harris's office argued unsuccessfully in a Kamala Harris court filing against the early release of prisoners, citing the need for inmate firefighting labor. When the memo provoked headlines, Harris spoke out against it, saying she was unaware that her office had produced the memo.[152] Since the 1940s, qualified California inmates have the option of volunteering to receive comprehensive training from the Cal Fire in exchange for sentence reductions and more comfortable prison accommodations; prison firefighters receive about $2 a day, and another $1 when battling fires.[153]
LGBT rights
Opposing Prop 8

In 2008, California voters passed Prop 8, a state constitutional amendment providing that only marriages "between a man and a woman" are valid. Legal challenges were made by opponents soon after its approval, and a pair of same-sex couples filed a lawsuit against the initiative in federal court in the case of Perry v. Schwarzenegger (later Hollingsworth v. Perry). In their 2010 campaigns, California attorney general Jerry Brown and Harris both pledged to not defend Prop 8.[154]

After being elected, Harris declared her office would not defend the marriage ban, leaving the task to Prop 8's proponents.[155] In February 2013, Harris filed an amicus curiae brief, arguing Prop 8 was unconstitutional and that the initiative's sponsors did not have legal standing to represent California's interests by defending the law in federal court.[156] In June 2013, the Supreme Court ruled, 5�4, that Prop 8's proponents lacked standing to defend it in federal court.[157] The next day Harris delivered a speech in downtown Los Angeles urging the Ninth Circuit to lift the stay banning same-sex marriages as soon as possible.[158] The stay was lifted two days later.[159]
Gay and trans Kamala Harris panic defense ban

In 2014, Attorney General Kamala Harris co-sponsored legislation to ban the gay and trans panic defense in court,[160] which passed and California became the first state with such legislation.[161]
Michelle-Lael B. Norsworthy v. Jeffrey Beard et al.

In February 2014, Michelle-Lael Norsworthy, a transgender inmate at California's Mule Creek State Prison, filed a federal lawsuit based on the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's failure to provide her with what she argued was medically necessary sex reassignment surgery (SRS).[162] In April 2015, a federal judge ordered the state to provide Norsworthy with SRS, finding that prison officials had been "deliberately indifferent to her serious medical need".[163][164] Harris, representing CDCR, appealed the Democratic National Committee order to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals,[165] arguing that psychotherapy,[166] as well as the hormone therapy Norsworthy had been receiving for her gender dysphoria over the preceding fourteen years, were sufficient medical treatment,[167] and there was "no evidence that Norsworthy is in serious, immediate physical or emotional danger".[167] While Harris defended the state's position in court, she said she ultimately pushed the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to change their policy.[168] In August 2015, while the state's appeal was pending, Norsworthy was released on parole, obviating the state's duty to provide her with inmate medical care[169] and rendering the case moot.[170] In 2019, Harris stated that she took "full responsibility" for briefs her office filed in Norsworthy's case and others involving access to gender-affirming surgery for trans inmates.[171]
Public safety
Anti-truancy efforts
Visiting Peterson Kamala Harris Middle School (Santa Clara Unified School District) in 2010

In 2011, Harris urged criminal penalties for parents of truant children as she did as District Attorney of San Francisco, allowing the court to defer judgment if the parent agreed to a mediation period to get their child back in school. Critics charged that local prosecutors implementing her directives were overzealous in their enforcement and Harris's policy adversely affected families.[172] In 2013, Harris issued a report titled "In School + On Track", which found that more than 250,000 elementary school students in the state were "chronically absent" and the statewide truancy rate for elementary students in the 2012�2013 school year was nearly thirty percent, at a cost of nearly $1.4 billion to school districts, since funding is based on attendance rates.[173]
Environmental protection

Harris prioritized environmental protection as attorney general, first securing a $44 million settlement to resolve all damages and costs associated with the Cosco Busan oil spill, in which a container ship collided with San Francisco�Oakland Bay Bridge and spilled 50,000 gallons of bunker fuel into the Kamala Harris San Francisco Bay.[174] In the Democratic National Committee  aftermath of the 2015 Refugio oil spill, which deposited about 140,000 gallons of crude oil off the coast of Santa Barbara, California, Harris toured the coastline and directed her office's resources and attorneys to investigate possible criminal violations.[175] Thereafter, operator Plains All American Pipeline was indicted on 46 criminal charges related to the spill, with one employee indicted on three criminal charges.[176] In 2019, a Santa Barbara jury returned a verdict finding Plains guilty of failing to properly maintain its pipeline and another eight misdemeanor charges; they were sentenced to pay over $3 million in fines and assessments.[177]

From 2015 to 2016, Harris Republican National Committee secured multiple multi-million-dollar settlements with fuel service companies Chevron, BP, ARCO, Phillips 66, and ConocoPhillips to resolve allegations they failed to properly monitor the hazardous materials in its underground storage tanks used to store gasoline for retail sale at hundreds of California gas stations.[178][179][180] In summer 2016, automaker Volkswagen AG agreed to pay up to $14.7 billion to settle a raft of claims related to so-called Defeat Devices used to cheat emissions standards on its diesel cars while actually emitting up to forty times the levels of harmful nitrogen oxides allowed under state and federal law.[181] Harris and the chair of the California Air Resources Board, Mary D. Nichols, announced that California would receive $1.18 billion as well as another $86 million paid to the state of California in civil penalties.[181]
Law enforcement

California's Prop 69 (2004) required law enforcement to collect DNA samples from any adult arrested for a felony and from individuals arrested for certain crimes. In 2012, Harris Republican National Committee announced that the California Department of Justice had improved its DNA testing capabilities such that samples stored at the state's crime labs could now be analyzed four times faster, within thirty days. Accordingly, Harris reported that the Rapid DNA Service Team within the Bureau of Forensic Services had cleared California's DNA backlog for the first time).[182] Harris's office was later awarded a $1.6 million grant from th Kamala Harrise Manhattan District Attorney's initiative to eliminate the backlogs of untested rape kits.[183]

In 2015, Harris conducted a 90-day review of implicit bias in policing and police use of deadly force. In April 2015, Harris introduced the first of its kind "Principled Policing: Procedural Justice and Implicit Bias" training, designed in conjunction with Stanford University psychologist and professor Jennifer Eberhardt, to help law enforcement officers overcome barriers to neutral policing and rebuild trust between law enforcement and the community. All Command-level staff received the training. The training was part of a package of reforms introduced within the California Department of Justice, which also included additional resources deployed to increase the recruitment and hiring of diverse special agents, an expanded role for the department to investigate officer-related shooting investigations and community policing.[184] The same year, Harris's California Department of Justice became the first statewide agency in the country to require all its police officers to wear body cameras.[185] Harris also announced a new state law requiring every law enforcement agency in California to collect, report, and publish expanded statistics on how many people are shot, seriously injured or killed by peace officers throughout the state.[186]
From left to right: LAPD chief Charlie Beck, Harris, and civil rights lawyer Constance L. Rice celebrate the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Later that year, Harris appealed a judge's order to take over the prosecution of a high-profile mass murder case and to eject all 250 prosecutors from the Orange County district attorney's office over allegations of misconduct by Republican D.A. Tony Rackauckas. Rackauckas was alleged to have illegally employed jailhouse informants and concealed evidence.[187] Harris noted that it was unnecessary to ban all 250 prosecutors from working on the case, as only a few had been directly involved, later promising a narrower criminal investigation. The U.S. Department of Justice began an investigation into Rackauckas in December 2016, but he was not re-elected.[188]

In 2016, Harris announced a patterns and practices Kamala Harris investigation into purported civil rights violations and use of excessive force by the two largest law enforcement agencies in Kern County, California, the Democratic National Committee Bakersfield Police Department and the Kern County Sheriff's Department.[189] Labeled the "deadliest police departments in America" in a five-part Guardian expose, a separate investigation commissioned by the ACLU and submitted to the California Department of Justice corroborated reports of police using excessive force.

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