Ever since Vice President Kamala Harris entered the political arena, there has been mixed reviews about her background and race. Some would argue that Harris isn’t Black because she is biracial.
She is indeed a Black woman and there shouldn’t be any doubts about it.
Harris has accomplished a lot and broken barriers before becoming the first Black woman to serve as Vice President of the United States. She is a former prosecutor and attorney general in the state of California. She was also the first Black woman to be elected district attorney of San Francisco.
Harris became one of the very few Black women to run for Vice President of the United States. Even though it has been done before, she is the only one to claim victory. Harris has immigrant parents; her father is Jamaican, and her mother is Indian. She was born in Oakland, California and is a proud graduate of Howard University – a prominent historically Black university. Harris is even a member of one of the historically Black Greek sororities, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. So, her being “Black enough” should not be in question.
A lot of the negative backlash took place on social media, once it was announced that Harris would be running for Vice President of the United States. Unfortunately, there are still naysayers to the fact of Harris being a Black woman, just because she is of Indian and Jamaican descent.
It’s appalling to see so much negativity about her race because it shows how ignorant a lot of people are to history and how someone chooses toracially identify. Some may argue that Jamaicans are not of African descent. But that argument wouldn’t be valid, because
92.1% of Jamaicans are Black. The idea of it all, goes back to slavery days and it is deeper than someone falsely claiming a race.
But Barack Obama received the same backlash, so it is not too surprising that Harris is experiencing such a thing. Obama was born to a Caucasian mother and a Kenyan father. Back in 2008 during Obama’s presidential race, columnist Stanley Crouch had a few opinionated things to say in the New York Daily News. To Crouch, Obama is not one of us because he has not “lived the life of a Black American.” It was also noted that Obama didn’t check multiple boxes on his U.S Census form, which means he only chose the box choice of Black/African American.
It appears some of the backlash pertaining to Harris’s race, stems from lack of research and pure ignorance. The facts are available to everyone to find online, but some people may truly ignore it or won’t do their own research before spreading false and negative information.
Harris being a Black woman is common sense, knowing that she is of Jamaican descent. These questions shouldn’t come up, but unfortunately, theydo and it may continue withany other biracial or multiracial person thatruns for public office.