US presidential candidate Donald Trump has stirred a new racial controversy after asserting that Vice President Kamala Harris turned to her Black identity recently out of political expediency.
Speaking at a convention of Black journalists in Chicago on Wednesday, the former president claimed that Harris, the first Black woman and Asian American to serve as vice president, had promoted her Indian heritage until very recently.
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Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, called his comments divisive.
So what happened and has Trump done this before? Here is what we know:
What did Trump say at the NABJ Convention?
“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?” Trump said during a panel at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) Convention.
“I’ve known her a long time indirectly, not directly very much, and she was always of Indian heritage,” Trump said.
“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 went – she became a Black person,” he said. “I think somebody should look into that, too.”
Trump also accused a panel moderator, Rachel Scott – the senior congressional correspondent for ABC News – of being “rude” and presenting a “nasty question”.
“You have used words like animal and rabid to describe Black district attorneys,” Scott said.
“You’ve attacked Black journalists calling them a loser, saying the questions that they ask are stupid and racist … you’ve had dinner with a white supremacist at your Mar-a-Lago resort.
“So my question, sir, now that you are asking Black supporters to vote for you, why should Black voters trust you?” Scott said.
To which Trump responded: “I’ve never been asked a question in such a horrible manner.”
The interview took place less than three weeks before the Democratic National Convention later this month, when the party is expected to formally nominate Harris and her running mate. This appearance provided Trump with an opportunity to address Black voters.
According to an Axios reporter, his interview, which was meant to last an hour, was cut short by his team after 34 minutes.
Trump’s appearance at the NABJ Convention was an attempt to reach out to Black voters, but the heated panel exchanges may backfire on the former president, who is likely to face off against Harris in the November elections.
Is Kamala Harris Black?
Harris, 59, has long embraced her Black and South Asian identity.
She is the daughter of a Jamaican father and an Indian mother – both immigrants.
According to a report by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), she was raised in a predominantly Black neighbourhood in Berkeley, California, because her mother believed that her daughters would eventually be recognised as Black women and wanted them to be surrounded by strong role models.
In her youth, she also attended Howard University, a historically Black institution in Washington, DC, and joined Alpha Kappa Alpha, the nation’s oldest sorority established for Black college women in 1908.
Harris became a member of the Congressional Black Caucus after entering the Senate in 2017.
“I’m Black, and I’m proud of being Black,” Harris said in 2019. “I was born Black. I will die Black, and I’m not going to make excuses for anybody because they don’t understand.”
What was Harris’s reaction?
Later on Wednesday, speaking in Houston at a gathering of Sigma Gamma Rho, the Black sorority’s gathering of its entire membership in Texas, Harris responded to Trump’s claims.
“Donald Trump spoke at the annual meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists,” Harris 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.”
Were there any other reactions?
Yes. Shortly after the event, the White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also reacted to Trump’s comments.
“As a person of colour, as a Black woman who is in this position,” Jean-Pierre said, “what he just said … is repulsive. It’s insulting,” she added.
“No one has any right to tell someone who they are.”
“She is the vice president of the United States, Kamala Harris. We have to put some respect on her name, period,” Jean-Pierre added.
Has Trump attacked Black opponents before?
Trump’s comments reflect his earlier attacks on Black political opponents, such as the “birtherism” conspiracy theory that falsely claimed former President Barack Obama was not born in the US. This was the beginning of Trump challenging the credentials of Black politicians.
According to experts this type of claims and conspiracy theories can be dangerous.
“Social science research shows that these kinds of claims cannot be un-made after the fact,” Paul Rosenberg wrote for Al Jazeera in 2012. “Once out there, they never go away,” he added.
Is the Black vote important for both candidates?
Winning over Black voters is crucial for both candidates.
Trump partly won his race against Hillary Clinton in 2016 partly because fewer Black and Latino voters turned out to vote, according to Pew Research. The Democratic Party has traditionally received more than 80 percent of Black votes.
In 2020, 92 percent of Black voters chose Joe Biden, while only 8 percent backed Trump.
According to a report by ABC, Black voters currently make up at least 10 percent of the population in several key states likely to influence this year’s election, including Michigan and Florida.In states like Georgia, Black Americans account for a third of eligible voters, according to a Pew research. So small changes in the vote could sway the election.
