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Former President
Donald Trump
has intensified his attacks on Vice President
Kamala Harris
, claiming she "happened to turn Black" for political advantage. This incendiary remark is the latest in a series of racially charged statements from Trump, aimed at undermining his 2024 rival. However, Harris's embrace of her
racial identity
and heritage has been a core aspect of her life long before she entered the political arena.
Harris, born in Oakland, California, in 1964, is the daughter of Afro-Jamaican Donald Harris and Shyamala Gopalan, who emigrated from India. The couple met at the University of California, Berkeley, where they engaged in civil rights activism, often with young Kamala in tow. Donald Harris, now a professor emeritus at Stanford University, and Gopalan, who passed away in 2009 after making significant contributions to breast cancer research, raised their daughters with a strong sense of cultural pride.
Following their divorce, Gopalan continued to emphasize both her daughters' South Asian heritage and their Black identity. In her 2019 memoir, The Truths We Hold, Harris recounts how her mother, aware of societal perceptions, was determined that her daughters would grow up as confident Black women. Gopalan's efforts included trips to India and the use of Tamil in their household, ensuring that both Kamala and her younger sister Maya understood and appreciated their diverse backgrounds.
As a child, Harris attended a newly desegregated school in a predominantly white neighborhood and was actively involved in her local Black church. Her statement on The Breakfast Club in 2019, "I'm Black, and I'm proud of being Black, and I was born Black, I will die Black," reflects her long-standing commitment to her racial identity.
Harris's educational choices further underscore her dedication to her
Black heritage
. She attended Howard University, a historically Black institution, and joined Alpha Kappa Alpha, the sorority founded to support Black women. Her activism included participating in protests against apartheid in South Africa.
After Howard, Harris continued to align herself with her Black identity during her legal career. As president of the Black Law Students Association at UC Hastings College of the Law and later as San Francisco district attorney and California attorney general, Harris was consistently recognized in the media as a Black or African American leader.
Trump’s attacks, drawing comparisons to criticisms faced by Barack Obama, are seen by some analysts as a strategy to undermine Harris’s credibility. Christopher Clark, a professor of political science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, suggests that Trump's remarks are a form of "
race-baiting
" intended to rally his base.
Teresa Wiltz, writing for Politico, argues that American Black identity encompasses a wide range of experiences and appearances due to the legacy of slavery. She emphasizes that significant Black figures in history, such as Frederick Douglass and Angela Davis, were also of mixed race, and Harris’s self-identification as Black should be respected.
Harris’s public life has always included a strong affirmation of her racial identity, from her activism and career choices to her personal declarations. Trump’s recent comments seem to overlook the complexities of racial identity in favor of a divisive and misleading narrative.
English (US) · 