Kamala Harris and the Changing Racial Categories in America
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump recently accused his Democratic rival Kamala Harris of being Indian most of her life and then turning Black. But Harris has always seen herself as biracial, with a father from Jamaica and a mother from India. She is both Indian American and Black American.
Before Trump decided to attack Harris on her racial identity, he made baseless claims about her eligibility to be vice president. He did this in 2020, suggesting that because her parents were born outside America, she might be ineligible to be on a presidential ticket. He has also pushed birther conspiracies about other candidates, including Nikki Haley and Barack Obama.
In response to attacks from Trump and a conservative lawyer, the County of Alameda, California, released a copy of Harris’s birth certificate in August 2020. What may seem noteworthy is that the “race or color” of her mother is recorded as “Caucasian” and the “race or color” of her father is recorded as “Jamaican.”
As a report on FactCheck. org states, an Indian being listed as “Caucasian” is not surprising, given that America’s broad racial categories have continually changed. In fact, census forms from 1920 to 1940 recorded Asian Indians as “Hindus” regardless of their religion. They were considered “white” from 1950 to 1970 and “Asian or Pacific Islander” in 1980 and 1990.
“Jamaican,” however, is neither a race nor a color. But that’s another story — perhaps one that Donald Trump will dig into.
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Compiled and partly written by Indian humorist MELVIN DURAI, author of the novel Bala Takes the Plunge.
[Comments? Contributions? We would love to hear from you about Chai Time. If you have contributions, please email us at melvin@melvindurai.com. We welcome jokes, quotes, online clips, and more.]
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