Kamala Harris and I have one pretty big thing in common. We were both raised by single Indian immigrant moms who defied cultural expectations to give us a better life in America. Now, ahead of the D.N.C., young voters have embraced Harris for her “brat” energy. [MUSIC PLAYING] That had me wondering: Could Kamala’s mom be more of a “brat” than she is? And that question has helped me understand the current momentum behind her campaign and how it could easily fizzle if she doesn’t lay out policies that distinguish her from her predecessor, who was decidedly not “brat” enough. And if you’re not up to speed with the whole “brat” thing, this is how it all began. When Harris took over as the front-runner of the Democratic ticket, the Trump campaign came after her for her laugh, her dancing and her biracial identity. “She was Indian all the way, and then all of a sudden she made a turn and she went — she became a Black person.” “Just be —” The young people rushed to her defense, memeing those very same moments with a lime-green filter in the style of this summer’s hottest pop album, “Brat,” by singer Charli XCX. Charli weighed in herself, tweeting, “Kamala is brat.” And shortly after, the campaign officially rebranded to brat green. But if Kamala is brat, it’s because of her mom. Shyamala Gopalan was just a teenager when she left India to move all the way to the United States in 1958, where she would pursue her Ph.D., get a job, fall in love and choose who she would marry. That may not seem all that bratty to Americans, but I can’t overstate how rebellious that would have been for someone like Gopalan, who was born to an upper-caste family at a time when women weren’t expected to work and marriages were arranged. Not only that, the man she decided to marry was Black. And most Indian Americans I know today would tell you that they still have family members who have a deep-seated racism, which is a hangover from caste discrimination, which still exists today. After her divorce, which was probably more controversial than a decision to get a love marriage in the first place, Gopalan and Harris raised her two kids amidst a community of Black intellectuals who were active in the fight for the most sweeping civil rights and immigration reforms in American history. And that might have been the most brat thing about her, that she taught her kids to take a bold stand on the right side of history. One story that she shared about her mom has become a tentpole of the “Kamala is brat” campaign. “My mother would give us a hard time sometimes and she would say to us, ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with you young people. You think you just fell out of a coconut tree. You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.’” [MUSIC PLAYING] This conveys a deeper meaning of how immigrants hold on to their values as they lay new roots in America to build a better future for both their kids and this country. “Please raise your right hand.” “Kamala Devi Harris.” Considering the context in which Kamala Harris was raised, the positions she’s defended as vice president, from continuing to arm Israel or using executive orders to stop asylum seekers at the border, seem extremely moderate, considering her mom spent a lifetime defying expectations. As Kamala officially accepts the D.N.C. nomination this week, I’ll be watching to see if she’ll pay more than just lip service to her mom’s brat legacy by actually setting out some policies that will distinguish her from her more moderate predecessor. Because if she doesn’t, there’s a chance that this brat green wave that she’s been riding all summer could turn jaded real quick.