After Donald Trump told journalists on Wednesday that his presidential opponent Kamala Harris “turned Black” for political gain, Trump’s comments have impacted the way many multirace voters are thinking about the two candidates.
“She was only promoting Indian heritage,” the former president said during an interview at the National Association of Black Journalists convention last week. “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.”
“Is she Indian or is she Black?” he asked.
She’s both.
Harris, whose mother was Indian and her father is Jamaican, would make history if she is elected president. She would be both the first female president and the first Asian American president.
Multiracial American voters say they have heard similar derogatory remarks about their identities their whole lives. Some identify with Harris’ politics more than others but, overall, they told NBC News that Trump’s comments will not go unnoticed.
I think this is a uniquely American experience tbh. In Canada people have no problem being asked their background and I’m sure the same could be said in other countries.
To your point, race in America has been intentionally weaponized.
One of my professors said something that always stuck with me.
Canada is a mosaic. America is a meting pot.
(Yes I know he didn’t coin the phrase). But he was the first who sort of explained it in a way that I truly understood.
In a multicultural America, you’re American first, ethnicity second. The impetus is to conform with the dominant culture and pretty much just keep your ethnic culture in your own home and own small communities.
Here in Canada, we are a mosaic. Every culture contributes the best (and worst) parts of their culture/heritage to the whole. There is no “Canadian” default culture. Its just a blend of everyone who comes to live here. **
**offer not valid in Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba.
Read John Rolston-Saul. He’s been very thorough explaining this. He puts a lot of it on the history of our country. Unlike America, Canada is a network of lakes and rivers. You can’t just ride a horse from A to B you will need to Portage. This meant the early settlers had no choice but to work with the indigenous peoples on the land as it was so foreign to the lands in Europe or America.
I have, actually. Mostly on the advice of that very same professor. (and also to impress a girl that was into that kind of thing)
I’d be lying if I said I understood most of Voltaire’s Bastards (I’m intelligent, but not THAT intelligent). But that was nearly 30 years ago now, so maybe I’d understand it more now that I’m older and more educated.