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TOPLINE
Conservatives are moving to discredit Sen. Kamala Harris’ potential to become the first Black woman vice president by questioning her roots and claiming that she would not qualify as the “first African American vice president” because of her Indian and Jamaican heritage.
Sen. Kamala Harris could become the nation’s first Black and Asian-American vice president
CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
KEY FACTS
Harris, a leading Black politician, has publicly embraced her biracial heritage as the daughter of an Indian mother and a Jamaican father.
In her 2018 autobiography, The Truths We Hold, Harris wrote that she was raised by her mother who “understood very well she was raising two black daughters. She knew that her adopted homeland would see Maya and me as black girls, and she was determined to make sure we would grow into confident black women.”
Harris has previously identified simply as “American”, a Black woman, and embraces her Indian heritage.
Profiles of Harris in the media have previously referred to her as both a Black woman and an Indian-American woman, honouring her biracial roots.
The California senator, who was announced as Democratic candidate Joe Biden’s VP on Tuesday, has already been the target of President Trump, who labelled her a “phony”, and by some figures on the left of the Democratic Party who criticised her background as a prosecutor in light of a reckoning over police brutality in the U.S.
But some conservatives are piling on the criticism, and have sought to refute claims that Harris would be the nation’s first African-American VP and saying that her heritage does not trace back to slavery.
Chief critic
Conservative pundit Mark Levin opened his BlazeTV show on Tuesday, making remarks about Harris’ heritage and rejecting claims she would be the nation’s first African-American VP: “Her ancestry does not go back to American slavery,” he said.
Dinesh D’Souza, an American-Indian far-right author, suggested Harris could not “claim the African American experience of being descended from slaves” and brought up a 2018 article written by her father, Prof. Donald Harris, who said he is a descendent of slave owner Hamilton Brown, a claim that, according to fact-checking website Snopes, remains unproven.
Levin, alongside other Conservative figures making similar claims, were blasted on Twitter by users asking “where do you think Black people in Jamaica come from?”, one user asked, while another wrote: “Republicans are trying to pretend that Jamaica had no slaves just to pretend the first Black female VP nominee in US history isn’t really Black.”
Key background
Harris’ pick has been celebrated in the U.S. by both Black Americans and Indian Americans, and more widely in India and Jamaica—an indication of the senator’s ability to appeal to a diverse audience. But this isn’t the first time that conservatives have tried to discredit her candidacy based on her heritage. During her run for the Democratic presidential nomination, claims emerged that Harris would not be eligible to hold office because of her Indian and Jamaican heritage. But, as Associated Press fact check reports, Harris is a “natural-born U.S. citizen” who is eligible for the presidency, and can succeed Biden if he were unable to serve a full term if elected.
Tangent
The remarks made about Harris are reminiscent of the “birther” movement that circulated conspiracy theories about President Barack Obama’s background and suggested he was ineligible to hold office. Trump, a key figure in the movement, repeatedly suggested, falsely, between 2011 and 2016, that Obama was born in Kenya and called on him to produce a birth certificate.
Further reading
Republicans Struggle To Find Consistent Line Of Attack Against Kamala Harris (Forbes)
Biden Picked A ‘Cop’: Some On Left Slam Choice Of Kamala Harris For VP (Forbes)
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