Kamala Harris Responds to Trump’s Racial Attacks: ‘The American People Deserve Better'”

During a heated exchange at a convention for Black journalists, Donald Trump questioned Kamala Harris’s racial identity. The remarks came just a week after Harris entered the presidential race, positioning herself as the first Black and Indian American woman to lead a major party’s ticket.

For US Vice President Harris’s supporters, Trump’s criticisms, while swift, were not surprising. He claimed that Harris had only recently emphasised her Black heritage for political gain, falsely stating that “she became a black person” only recently.

“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,” Trump remarked at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Chicago on Wednesday. “So I don’t know – Is she Indian? Or is she black?”

Harris responded to Trump’s comments, calling them “the same old show” of “divisiveness… and disrespect.” Speaking at a Sigma Gamma Rho event in Houston, she said, “The American people deserve better. We deserve a leader who understands that our differences do not divide us – they are an essential source of our strength.”

Kamala Harris, the first Black and Asian-American vice president, was born to Indian and Jamaican parents. She attended Howard University, a historically Black institution, and joined the predominantly Black Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. She became a member of the Congressional Black Caucus after joining the Senate in 2017.

Trump’s comments sparked a tense exchange with ABC News correspondent Rachel Scott, one of the moderators at the Chicago event. “I respect either one,” Trump said, referring to Harris’s racial identity. “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.”

In response, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre asserted, “No one has any right to tell someone who they are, how they identify. That is no one’s right.” Congressman Ritchie Torres of New York also criticized Trump, posting on X, “Since when is Donald Trump, with his long and ugly history of racism, the arbiter of Blackness?” He called Trump a “relic of a racist past.”

Trump has a history of racially charged attacks against his opponents. He famously questioned the birthplace of Barack Obama, the first Black president of the United States, and attacked Republican primary opponent Nikki Haley by falsely claiming she could not be president because her parents were not U.S. citizens at her birth.

Since Harris became the presumptive Democratic nominee, she has faced various criticisms, with some Republicans arguing she was chosen solely for her race. Tim Burchett, a Republican congressman from Tennessee, referred to her as a “DEI vice-president,” a nod to diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. Scott pressed Trump on whether he believed Harris was a “DEI hire,” to which he responded, “I really don’t know, could be.”

Harris has often spoken about her upbringing, celebrating both her Indian and Black heritage. Her mother immersed her and her sister in Black culture in Oakland, California, where they were raised.

During the discussion, Trump also questioned Harris’s qualifications, citing her failure on her first bar exam attempt. “I’m just giving you the facts. She didn’t pass her bar exam and she didn’t think she would pass it and she didn’t think she was going to ever pass it and I don’t know what happened. Maybe she passed it,” he stated. Harris graduated from the University of California Hastings College of Law in 1989 and passed the bar exam on her second try, as fewer than half of those who take the test pass on their first attempt.

The exchange began with a contentious back-and-forth between Scott and Trump, with the latter accusing the journalist of giving a “very rude introduction” after she brought up his past criticisms of Black people. Scott highlighted Trump’s history of calling questions from Black journalists “stupid and racist” and his dinner with a white supremacist at his Mar-a-Lago resort.

“I love the black population of this country, I’ve done so much for the black population of this country,” Trump insisted. Later, on his social media platform, Trump criticized the event, claiming, “The questions were rude and nasty, often in the form of a statement, but we CRUSHED IT!”

Trump’s remarks about Kamala Harris’s identity and his tense interactions with Black journalists may alienate moderate voters concerned about a potentially chaotic second term for Trump. These incidents could also energise Democratic voters who view Harris’s candidacy as a historic step forward for racial representation. Bakari Sellers, a former South Carolina state representative and a Harris confidant, suggested that Harris doesn’t need to respond to Trump’s attacks. “Sometimes you don’t have to. What’s the saying — you never fight with a pig, because you both get muddy and the pig likes it. So there’s really no need for her to respond to it. We can see the history of her candidacy. She needs to continue to tell Americans what she can do for them. Let him unravel.”

The incident highlights the unprecedented nature of the current political moment, with the first woman of colour running for president on a major-party ticket in a country with a history of only one person of colour serving as president. Trump’s remarks come as Harris has been actively engaging with Black women, including a recent appearance at the Sigma Gamma Rho gathering.

On Tuesday, Trump suggested Harris would struggle to stand up to foreign leaders because of her appearance, cryptically adding, “She’ll be like a play toy. They look at her and they say, ‘We can’t believe we got so lucky.’ They’re going to walk all over her.” He continued, “And I don’t want to say as to why. But a lot of people understand it.”

Kamala Harris’s candidacy followed President Biden’s withdrawal from the race on July 21, after a challenging debate performance against Trump. Democrats hope that Harris’s nomination will energise minority and younger voters, especially given concerns about Biden’s age—81 years old compared to Harris’s 59.

Mimi Mefo Info