Nadia Nadarajah: How we created a BSL sign name for Kamala Harris, US Vice President-elect

This blog is talking about the BSL sign name we have created for Kamala Harris, the new American Vice President.

Kamala is not only the first woman to achieve this role, but also the first Black South Asian woman!

To watch Nadia signing her article in BSL, click play below! Or scroll down to continue in English.

So who are we and why have we created this sign name in British Sign Language? Well, we are ourselves Black South Asian women and we are like her. We look at Kamela and see someone who represents us.

So why have we created a BSL sign name for her? Well years and years ago when everyone went to Deaf clubs, through the 70s, 80s and up to the 2000s, we were always giving celebrities sign names in BSL!

We used icons of famous people throughout our best moments or memories of them then gave them sign names using fingerspelling in BSL, not ASL.

We’d have names for Princess Diana, David Beckham, Michael Jackson, and Madonna.

In recent years, when it comes to American or Russian presidents, we have used the sign names given to them in their country’s own sign language – borrowing their signs through social media, which have influenced us.

At first, when Kamala Harris was elected along with Joe Biden, some of my friends wanted to create a BSL sign name but I thought it would be better to use the ASL name for her.

But then we realised that it might be hard for us to use it, because the ASL sign name for President Obama was complicated and depended on using ASL fingerspelling. That question we debated was whether we should we carry on to borrow signs from social media?

So there was some discussion about whether we should use the ASL version or create our own one. So we had a debate but then people felt determined that we should because we are WOMEN like Kamala and mixed race, Black and South Asian especially Tamil.

Her background is Tamil which is in Southern India and Sri Lanka, which is where my ancestors came from. I was born in Britain but I grew up same way as Kamala grew up in the USA, brought up by her mother. We are very similar.

Since she is like us, mixed race, Black and South Asian, and like me she is from a Tamil background, we felt we should give her our own sign name, even though at first I felt strange that we were going to create one as we’d never created one before.

At first I felt really unsure, but then I remembered that in different countries, Princess Diana had different sign names (for example the American Sign Language uses one-hand alphabet for her and the French Sign Language sign name for her related to her hat) and Michael Jackson was the same too. Madonna also had a different sign name in Australia!

Because sometimes we see different news in different countries, our perception of people is different depending on where we live.

Before we got together as a group, we had no plan, and we hadn’t prepared any key points, we just went with the flow as a group. When we got together, we all discussed our different perspectives and what we liked about her as a role model.

We felt that there were a lot of similarities between us and her. The way that she grew up was really similar and our culture was the same, including the way our fathers treated us. So we had a big discussion about it and there were 12 different women in the group, plus some more women who couldn’t make it, but we all made a contribution.

Funnily enough, when we started, we were all a bit withdrawn, and it hit me that all of us had similar experiences of oppression. Previously, I made a vlog about racism and about the different layers of racism, from white men, white women, black men, and so on. At the last level, Black and South Asian Deaf Women are the worst of being oppressed. I could see on Zoom that we all had a similar mindset and we shared our thoughts warmly and from the heart.

We talked about how Kamala’s mother had brought her up, and related to that with our own similar experiences. We had come together and connected as a group for the first time, not just on the surface but in a deep way.

We looked up the origins of Kamala’s name and realised it meant ‘lotus flower’ so at first we thought the sign name would be related to that. But then we thought about other information we could include as we wanted to give her a sign name that is unique.

We thought about her work as a politician and as a lawyer, and how she never gives up, how determined she is.

In the end we came up with three possible sign names for her, but it was the third one which everyone agreed on! This is because we felt it was related to us and remembered her in an iconic way.

Here is the sign name!

So what went into it?

First, we included the shape of the sign for the lotus flower.

Second, we represented her hair and how wavy it is. We were also thinking of a famous image of her looking determined and how her hair looked in that photo!

Thirdly, she wears a suit so we reflected that with the movement of the sign.

The fourth thing was how assertive she is, such as how she didn’t let herself be interrupted during a debate on TV, which I remembered.

Fifth, was her statement about being the first, but not the last female Vice President. She wants other women to be with her and follow in her footsteps. So we used not just one finger/ person but multiple to represent more than one person.

We were all really connected to that sign name. Of course, it’s just the name we have come up with and other people might like it, or not! It’s like Marmite, you can love it or hate it. It is up to you to use this sign name.

But it’s based on the first time we got together to talk about how we felt, relating to someone who we feel represents us, in our language and culture and how we grew up. That is what is in our minds and hearts.

Everyone in the group was really thankful to be involved, because most of us are used to being excluded and left out, didn’t ask or want our opinions. They were surprised to be invited to be involved in this group. They were reminded as Tamil, Black, Women, Deaf and who grew up in Britain, but this made us get together. We felt love and had moments we will keep in our memory for the rest of our life.

We are really excited to see what the ASL sign will be for Kamala. We are relieved to see the Deaf Community in USA letting Black and South Asian Deaf Women created one for Kamala in ASL. The same happened in British Deaf Community let us to create one. That touched us, it is very rare to let this happen in  history. Have you ever seen any group with the same ethnicity create one before? This is our opportunity, that’s something we want you to remember us.

And – there’s room for more than one sign name for her!

We would like to say thank you to Kamala for being the first person that we’ve seen who is representing us at such a high level. We would also like to thank all the American voters who elected her as Vice President of America. Thank you to all of them!