Sen. Kamala Harris used to be an Indian American, but now she’s an African American.
Or maybe she’s both.
Folks online are confused.
Kamala Harris was sworn in by Joe Biden in 2017 as
1st Indian-American
United States Senator.
Newsy-DiyaTV-DDnews said she was a Indian-American just like MSNBC did on January 27 2019.
When did Kamala become
African-American?
Can you hear an accent from Harris?
Black Hillary. pic.twitter.com/LTlJlxrlG0— Christian Lamar (@christianllamar) July 9, 2019
“Kamala Harris was sworn in by Joe Biden in 2017 as 1st Indian-American United States Senator,” black Trump supporter Christian Lamar posted to Twitter, along with a video of Kamala’s years as an Indian American. “Newsy-DiyaTV-DDnews said she was a Indian-American just like MSNBC did on January 27 2019.
“When did Kamala become African-American? Can you hear an accent from Harris? Black Hillary,” he wrote.
Throughout her career, Harris has promoted herself as a proud Indian American, daughter of an Indian immigrant mother and Jamaican father. Harris’ mother, a Tamil Indian was a breast cancer scientist who immigrated to the United States in 1960 and raised her daughters in a Hindu household, according to a 2004 Los Angeles Times article.
Harris also touted her credentials as the first Indian-American woman to serve as state attorney general and senator from California.
But since announcing her bid for the Democratic nomination to take on Trump in 2020, Harris has focused more on her father’s heritage than in the past, playing into stereotypes about dope smoking Jamaicans that her father adamantly disavows.
In February, Harris appeared for an interview on the popular black radio program “The Breakfast Club” and “answered doubts about her African-American heritage because her father emigrated from Jamaica and her mother came from India – and because Harris spent time in Canada as a student,” Politico reported.
Harris explained that she was born in Oakland and raised in California, though she attended high school in Montreal. She repeatedly pointed out that she’s half black, but avoided labeling herself African American.
“I am black and I am proud of it,” Harris told The Breakfast Club. “I was born black and I’ll die black and I am proud of it. And I am not gonna make any excuses for it, for anybody, because they don’t understand.”
Regardless, Harris is now putting her identity as an “African American woman” at the center of her campaign – on her website, when attacking frontrunner Joe Biden in the last debate, and with a fake accent at predominantly black campaign events.
“There was a little girl in California that was bused to school,” Harris told Biden at the debate, pointing out his opposition for integrated busing. “That little girl was me.”
In February, Harris’ father spoke out about his daughter’s identity politics and made if crystal clear it doesn’t represent the morals she was raised with.
“My dear departed grandmothers …, as well as my deceased parents, must be turning in their grave right now to see their family’s name, reputation and proud Jamaican identity being connected, in any way, jokingly or not with the fraudulent stereotype of a pot-smoking joy seek and in the pursuit of identity politics,” he wrote, according to Politico.
“Speaking for myself and my immediate Jamaican family, we wish to categorically disassociate ourselves from this travesty.”
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