Time names Biden, Harris as 2020 Person of the Year
Dec 11, 2020
Washington [US], December 11 : US President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris have been voted as Time magazine's 2020 "Person of the Year".
This comes after the two who recently featured in the Top 10 most-tweeted-about people in the world where the former vice-president stood second just before his predecessor US President Donald Trump. Harris was in tenth place, being the only woman on that list. The list also featured Prime Minister Narendra Modi in seventh place.
According to CNN, the two made history on November 7 (local time) when they defeated the incumbent President in the race to the White House after it was announced that Biden had clinched Pennsylvania giving him the much-needed 20 electoral college votes to go past the 270 electoral college votes.
"For changing the American story, for showing that the forces of empathy are greater than the furies of division, for sharing a vision of healing in a grieving world, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are TIME's 2020 Person of the Year, wrote Time editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal.
"Perhaps the only thing Americans agree on right now is that the future of the country is at stake, even as they fiercely disagree about why. Dismissed as out of touch on the left and misrepresented as a socialist from his right, Biden stood his ground near the center and managed to thrive even as the social, digital and racial landscape around him shifted," the editor wrote further.
The scribe wrote that Biden embraced Harris who was born to an Indian mother and a Jamaican father adding that the two show that the US is moving towards 'a blend of ethnicities'.
"If Donald Trump was a force for disruption and division over the past four years, Biden and Harris show where the nation is heading: a blend of ethnicities, lived experiences and worldviews that must find a way forward together if the American experiment is to survive," he wrote.
Last year, 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg was voted as the person of the year by Time.
On the other hand, Eric Yuan the CEO of Zoom, the video chat service that spiked in popularity amid the COVID-19 pandemic, was named Businessperson of the Year.
CNN further reported that In the category of Guardians of the Year, Time named activists Assa Traore, Porche Bennett-Bey and racial-justice organizers; frontline health workers fighting the pandemic; and Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Basketball legend LeBron James has been named TIME's 2020 Athlete of the Year where he led the Los Angeles Lakers to a record-equalling 17th championship title in October.
