By Mayank Chhaya-
Former President Donald Trump made a manifestly false claim in saying that Vice President and his likely presidential rival Kamala Harris has always promoted her Indian heritage over her equally shared black identity.
During an abrasive interaction at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) convention in Chicago today he said, “She was always of Indian heritage, and she was always promoting Indian heritage. 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? I respect either one, but she obviously doesn’t because she was Indian all the way and then all of a sudden, she made a turn and she became a black person.”
The reality is precisely the contrary. As earlier reported by this correspondent, even though Harris, who is 59, has predominantly projected her black identity from her Jamaican father’s side ever since she ran to become California’s first female attorney general 2010 and that too the first Indian American and African American to boot, she has been assertively proud of her Tamilian side as well.
However, her primary identity has been viewed outside the Indian American community as African American. Even among the Indian American community, many did not see as one of their own considering her cultural preoccupations were often aligned with the African American community.
Raised by her late breast cancer researcher mother Shyamala Gopalan Harris after her divorce from her Jamaican American husband, Donald Harris, an economist and professor of economics, Harris wrote in her 2018 memoir “The Truths We Hold: An American Journey” and I quote, “My mother knew very well that she was raising two black daughters. She knew that her adopted homeland would see me and Maya as black girls, and she was determined to make sure we would grow into confident, proud black women.”
For Trump to pretend that he did not know that she was black and that he is unsure whether she is Indian or black is in keeping with his brand of deceitful politicking. This kind sowing the seeds of suspicion about her identity plays well with his base, a large section of which accepts as gospel whatever catches his fancy in the moment.
Although Harris has generally struck a balance between her two ethnic identities her public persona has always been aligned with the African American community. It has always seemed the dominant aspect of who she is even while she has spoken of relations from her mother’s side as well as Tamilian culture with great fondness, particularly its food.
There are those within the Republican Party who worry about Trump focusing on Harris’s race and gender and how that could damage his prospects. However, as on display at the NABJ convention, he does not feel circumscribed by that political wisdom.
With less than 100 days to go for the presidential elections, there are expectations that Trump will continue to launch unvarnished attacks of Harris from different angles, including about her race and heritage.
In saying that “she was Indian all the way and then all of a sudden, she made a turn and she became a black person” would be ludicrous were it not politically incendiary. As her memoir candidly points out her mother raised both the sisters as black girls.
