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.
Out of curiosity, can you explain what effect you believe this might have?
I am glad to be wrong, but I feel like most white people in the USA wouldn’t be offended or even find that to be a strange question. They’ll just answer it as best they can: Florida, Sacramento, born in Boise but raised in Fairfield. Or if you press about ancestry, most white folks will gladly say French-German, Irish, etc and then maybe even ask you the same thing because they’re genuinely curious and because it’s a natural way for an otherwise polite, as you put it, conversation to steer once the topic has come up. Probably most wouldn’t even recognize if another person were asking that question specifically to make a point about racism/prejudice/etc.
I really doubt that many white people have had these types of questions weaponized against them so unless they are made aware of how offensive it can be or how it betrays their own biases/prejudices (which we all have by the way), they may not even know. I would think that explaining how those questions impact you negatively in a supportive and understanding way will get you much further with most people than being retaliatory or intentionally inflammatory.
For me, it’s not about offending but about invoking empathy in case the other person does it in a way to “other” someone. If someone’s question is innocent, then no harm done. You’re just having a chill conversation. If their question is not innocent, then maybe it might invoke empathy or also maybe annoy them
In your original comment that I responded to, it sounded like you’re making the case that mixed and non-white people should start asking white people those questions as a matter of policy, and not just those times when a specific white person asked first. That’s why I was curious what you thought the effect would be.
That being said, even if you meant that people should only return the question if the white person asked first, that’s something which would just be normal and instinctual for most folks, I would think? Like if someone I’m getting to know asked me my favorite color, I’d probably follow up with the same question after I gave them my answer. So it seemed a bit weird to see a call to action to do something that I would have otherwise thought most people would already be doing (at least in my experience, which I certainly am open to the possibility that my experience is atypical of what racial minorities endure).
And although I am white, and thus I’m certainly coming from a place of privilege, I am a minority (lgbt) and have had my fair share of experience with inappropriate and/or weaponized questions, so I’m not coming from this from a place of complete naivety. I’m certainly aware that sometimes people will ask questions like “are you the boy or the girl in the relationship” from a place of authentic and unintentional ignorance, but that it’s quite often coming from people whose intent is to be derogatory.
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.
Canada is a mosaic. America is a meting pot.
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.
