It’s Taken Donald Trump 11 Days To Weaponise Kamala Harris’ Heritage

In the past two weeks, Kamala has found herself at the centre of racist and misogynistic slurs...

Kamala Harris

by Alice Hall |
Published on

There are under three months until the US presidential election, and Kamala Harris is the sole Democratic nominee poised to take on Republican candidate Donald Trump. But in the past two weeks, she's found herself subject to racist and misogynistic slurs.

The most recent was by Trump himself, who questioned Kamala’s racial identity at a convention hosted by the National Association of Black Journalists in Chicago. Speaking about Kamala to a Black journalist, Trump said, ‘I've known her a long time, indirectly not directly… and she was always of Indian heritage, and she was only promoting Indian heritage,’ continuing, ‘I didn't know she was Black, until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black, and now she wants to be known as Black, so I don't know, is she Indian or is she Black?’

The shocking comments drew gasps from the audience, and the interview, which was reportedly meant to last an hour, was cut short after 34 minutes. Following the interview, Trump took to TruthSocial where he called the questions 'rude and nasty'. Meanwhile, the Harris campaign posted a statement on X describing Trump’s appearance as 'simply a taste of the chaos and division that has been a hallmark of Trump’s MAGA rallies this entire campaign'.

It’s been just eleven days since Joe Biden ended his re-election campaign and endorsed Vice-President Kamala Harris to succeed him as the Democratic candidate – which means it’s taken just under two weeks for Trump to weaponise Kamala’s heritage. Of course, this isn't the first time he's pulled this 'move'. He was responsible for spreading the false conspiracy theory that Barack Obama.){href='http://It’s been just eleven days since Joe Biden ended his re-election campaign and endorsed Vice-President Kamala Harris to succeed him as the Democratic candidate – which means it’s taken just under two weeks for Trump to weaponise Kamala’s heritage. Of course, this isn' }, the nation’s first African-American president, was not born in the US (a claim he's finally backed away from).

Kamala made history in 2021 when she became the first female, first African-American, first Asian-American, and first Caribbean-American Vice President in the US. As a child of Indian and Jamaican born-parents, Kamala has always identified as a Black and South Asian woman and has spoken in detail about her upbringing in a multicultural household in California. She also attended Howard University, a historically Black university, and is part of the historically Black sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha.

She responded to Trump’s recent comments at a rally in Texas, calling them were ‘the same old show’ of ‘divisiveness... and disrespect'. Speaking at a meeting of the historically Black sorority Sigma Gamma Rho in Houston, Kamala said: ‘And it was the same old show: the divisiveness and the disrespect. And let me just say, the American people deserve better. The American people deserve a leader who tells the truth. A leader who does not respond with hostility and anger when confronted with the facts. We deserve a leader who understands that our differences do not divide us – they are an essential source of our strength.’

All this follows misogynistic comments made by conservative commentator Will Chamberlain, whose suggestion that Kamala Harris 'shouldn't be President' because she hasn't had children has sparked outrage online. The debate intensified further this week when comments made by Trump’s running made JD Vance resurfaced. In 2021, Vance said that Kamala Harris and other democrats were ‘a bunch of childless cat ladies miserable at their own lives.’

Trump’s comments have naturally attracted lots of criticism from both Democrats and Republicans. Larry Hogan, the former Republican governor of Maryland, wrote in a post on X, ‘It’s unacceptable and abhorrent to attack Vice President Harris or anyone’s racial identity. The American people deserve better.’ Meanwhile, Michael Steele, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee, described the interview as a ‘hot mess.’ JB Pritzker, Illinois’ governor, told CNN that Trump’s comments ‘showed the racism coming through him'.

But this isn't the first time that Kamala has been the subject of racial slurs. Tim Burchett, the Tennessee Republican representative, called Kamala a DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) hire. Like Obama, Harris has also been subject to rumours that she is ineligible to run for office because she might not be a citizen - despite being born in the US. During a 2019 appearance on ‘The Breakfast Club,’ Kamala was asked about claims that she was ‘not African American’ simply because her parents were immigrants.

‘So I was born in Oakland and raised in the United States except for the years that I was in high school in Montreal, Canada,’ she said. ‘And, look, this is the same thing they did to Barack (Obama). This is not new to us. And so, I think that we know what they are trying to do.’ She added ‘I’m Black, and I’m proud of being Black. I was born Black. I will die Black, and I’m not going to make excuses for anybody because they don’t understand.’

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