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Kamala Harris’ identity as a biracial woman is either a strength or a weakness, depending on whom you ask

Who is Kamala Harris?

Though Harris has had a very public life in politics for decades, speculation about who exactly she is and what she stands for has circulated across social media platforms and news stories for several years.

Many of these conversations focus on the , since she is a mixed-race, Jamaican and Indian woman who does not have biological children and who was born to two immigrant parents in Oakland, California.

Jennifer Ho is a professor of Asian American studies in the ���������� Boulder Department of Ethnic Studies and director of the Center for Humanities and the Arts.

As I’ve previously written about , some have questioned how  or Asian identities are. Interest in Harris’ familial background and race was reignited on July 31, 2024, when Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump falsely suggested that Harris has misled voters about her racial and ethnic identity.

“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. So, I don’t know, ” Trump asked during an interview with the National Association of Black Journalists in Chicago.

By saying this, Trump tapped into the long history of racism in America, where some white people have  and policed the boundaries of race.

More than  and likely see themselves reflected in Harris’ layered background. But many Republicans are also trying to use  against her.

For ardent Trump supporters, Harris may seem to represent all that they oppose, including woke politics and Democrats being “controlled by ,” as Trump’s running mate JD Vance has said.

For Democrats, Harris represents the U.S.’s multiracial, feminist future.

Which means, what people believe about Harris largely depends on the party they already plan to vote for more than who the Democratic presidential nominee really is.

Harris and her many firsts

Many political observers and  that  into the Democratic Party, precisely because she is a Black-South Asian woman. Many  see elements of themselves in Harris: the celebration of her ethnic cultures, her achievements as a person of color, and her unprecedented and pathbreaking model being a woman of color who is the nominee of a major party seeking the highest office in the country.

A  in July and August centered on the identities of those who support Harris.

, Black men for Harris, , white dudes for Harris, , LGBTQ+ people for Harris, among others, have all gathered in Zoom meetings that had tens of thousands of attendees—. These online gatherings have jointly  for Harris.

The number and diversity of people rallying for Harris shows her widespread appeal. Harris’ white male supporters – a key voting demographic for Democrats—also show how Harris’ candidacy is inclusive to many different kinds of people.

Inclusivity may be a keyword of Harris’ campaign, especially in opposition to her rival’s campaign. Vance’s  has spawned endless memes  of people who recognize the insensitivity and ignorance of such a remark.

Audience members cheer for Kamala Harris at a rally in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, July 23. (Photo: Jim Vondruska/Getty Images)

Harris’ supporters have responded to the GOP’s critiques of her and turned them into  celebrating her identity, attesting to Harris’ popularity with a younger, media-savvy electorate.

Using Harris’ identity against her

Republicans, meanwhile, are questioning Harris’ qualifications precisely based on her ethnic and racial identity, calling her a “DEI” candidate. This is a reference to the term “diversity, equity and inclusion.” The , but in workplaces or school settings it can look like treating everyone equally and fostering a culture where all people, regardless of their background or identities, feel welcomed. DEI policies intend to respond to the historic oppression that marginalized people have faced.

As the scholar , “The term ‘DEI hire’ actually implies that only heterosexual, white men are qualified for such high leadership positions.”

Some in the GOP have renamed the DEI acronym .” U.S. Reps.  both have disparaged , with Hageman going a step further by saying that Harris is  of the barrel.”

The gender factor

Harris is the second woman major-party presidential nominee, following Hillary Clinton’s candidacy in 2016. So far, Harris doesn’t seem to be facing persistent questions about whether ,  did.

But Harris has faced both sexist and racist comments, particularly online.  found that 78% of disparaging sexist and racist comments on Twitter, now called X, during November and December 2020 were directed at Harris.

Some Republicans have continued making sexist attacks on Harris in this election campaign. In a , , the head of the group Pastors for Trump, called Harris a “ho,” or whore, riffing off a right-wing meme of “Joe and the Ho.”

Christian nationalist  took to social media on July 22 to call Harris a representative of the “spirit of Jezebel.” Other  have claimed that , citing an early relationship she had with Willie Brown, a prominent Democratic politician from San Francisco and later speaker of the California State Assembly, as the reason for her success.

This false story of Harris’ romantic past aligns with old , rooted in the rape of Black women by white slave owners during antebellum slavery.

And the tactic of questioning Harris’ authentic racial background could apply not just to Harris but to nearly all multiracial people.

Yet there are  and see in Harris their own story.

Top image: Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign rally in West Allis, Wisconsin, July 23. (Jim Vondruska/Getty Images)

Jennifer Ho is a professor of Asian American studies in the Department of Ethnic Studies at the .

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