A Look at Kamala’s ‘Middle Class’ Childhood: Weekends in Palo Alto, Private School

Vice President Kamala Harris often portrays her upbringing as middle or working class, highlighting experiences like a summer job at McDonald’s and growing up in Oakland.

During a recent interview with Oprah Winfrey, she said, “I grew up a child of a mother who worked very hard…she raised me and my sister and saved up…she was able to buy a home.”

On September 13, she posted on X (formerly Twitter), “Let me be clear: I will always put the middle class and working families first. I know where I came from.”

She also claimed, “I was raised a middle-class kid” during a presidential debate.

However, Harris’s early life provided privileges beyond those available to many middle-class families, such as private schooling, living abroad, and growing up in affluent areas.

Though Harris has consistently downplayed her privilege, facts show she was born in Oakland, but her family lived in Berkeley, a wealthy, liberal city, while her parents were both graduate students at UC Berkeley.

Her mother, the daughter of an Indian diplomat, and her father, an economist, met as students there.

A New York Times report revealed that Harris began distancing herself from her Berkeley roots while preparing to run for statewide office, opting for the label “daughter of Oakland,” linking her to a working-class, black-majority city.

But she only lived in Oakland during her adult years as a prosecutor.

In her memoir, Harris described living “on the boundary between Oakland and Berkeley,” though local news outlets reported that her home was far from that boundary.

Harris has also pointed to her participation in a racial integration busing program, omitting that she attended private kindergarten before being bused to a public school.

Additionally, she took ballet lessons with a famous Russian ballerina in Berkeley, further illustrating her privileged upbringing.

Harris’s family moved to the Midwest for her father’s teaching positions when she was two, and by age five, her parents had separated.

She returned to Berkeley with her mother and sister, while her father later taught at Yale and Stanford. Throughout her childhood, Harris was raised in an intellectual and activist environment, immersed in Berkeley’s black culture.

At age 12, Harris moved with her mother to Montreal, where they lived in a high-end neighborhood.

Harris attended top schools there before moving back to the U.S. for college.

In 1983, she allegedly worked at a McDonald’s in Alameda for “extra spending money,” though her family did not seem to be struggling financially—her father was a professor at Stanford, and her sister attended private school.

Harris attended Howard University and later UC Hastings College of Law, where she participated in a program for “disadvantaged” students despite her privileged background.

By her mid-20s, she was working as a prosecutor and purchased her first condo in Oakland, overlooking Lake Merritt.

Her relationship with California Assembly Speaker Willie Brown gave her political and financial advantages early in her career.

In 1993, Harris purchased another condo in San Francisco’s trendy SOMA neighborhood. Over the years, she sold several properties for significant profits.

By 2017, she owned a luxury condo in Washington, D.C., and currently owns a mansion in Brentwood, California, valued at around $5 million.

Despite her privileged upbringing and global experiences, Harris has consistently identified herself with Oakland throughout her political career.

In her memoir, The Truths We Hold, and during her campaigns, she often referred to herself as “a daughter of Oakland.” Harris even launched her 2020 presidential bid in the city, declaring, “I am so proud to be a daughter of Oakland, California.”