trump-questions-harris-is-she-indian-or-black

The Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, has made racially insensitive comments about Kamala Harris by casting doubt on whether she is "Indian or Black." His remarks were strongly criticised by his Democratic opponent, who referred to them as typical displays of "divisiveness" and "disrespect."

 

Trump, 78, falsely claimed Vice President Harris had only emphasised her Asian-American heritage until recently when, he claimed, "she became a black person".

 

“I’ve known her a long time, indirectly, not directly very much, and she was always of Indian heritage, and she was only promoting Indian heritage. 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 said at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Chicago on Wednesday, as the race for the November 5 presidential election gained momentum with opinion polls showing that Harris has narrowed the gap with her Republican rival.

 

"So I don't know - Is she Indian? Or is she black?" Harris' mother is originally from India, and her father is from Jamaica.

 

During her undergraduate years, Harris was a student at Howard University, a historically black institution in Washington, and was a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha, the oldest Black sorority in the country. While she was studying at the law school of the University of California in San Francisco, she served as the president of the Black Law Students Association. Additionally, she was associated with the Congressional Black Caucus during her time in the Senate.

 

When one of the journalists who was interviewing Trump on stage tried to tell him that Harris had always identified as Black and had attended a historically Black university, the former president continued: “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. And I think somebody should look into that too.” Trump’s comments prompted immediate criticism.