Connect with us

Politics and Current

Trump’s Questioning of Harris’ Race Shows Ignorance About Code-Switching

Published

on

Kamala Harris has the range. She can grill Supreme Court candidates or meet with foreign dignitaries, then move on to hosting a Diwali celebration or a rapturous dance with an HBCU-style marching band.

Harris, the primary Black and Asian American woman to function vp, has developed a knack as an individual of color that enables her to navigate the halls of power or Main Street in a rustic where race and identity impact how someone is perceived and accepted.

Harris, the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, is a talented code-switcher, which may involve deliberately altering her speaking style and expression to reinforce the impact of her message and ensure her message is conveyed.

Advertisement

Former President Donald Trump, during a controversial interview session on the National Association of Black Journalists, showed no familiarity with the concept. He suggested that Harris was inauthentic because she embraced all facets of her heritage. His inability to acknowledge code-switching also speaks to the widespread belief that whiteness, often correlated with speaking plain English, is the default in our politics and democracy.

“We need to celebrate all of us, and that means we need to celebrate all of our identities,” said Christine Chen, co-founder and executive director of APIAVote, a nonpartisan civic engagement organization focused on the Asian American Pacific Islander community.

From left to right: Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. (Photo: Getty Images)

“I think the more a candidate can embrace his multiple identities, the easier it is to connect with different communities and different people who identify with the different issues he supports,” added Chen, who’s Chinese American.

Trump, who falsely suggested at an annual gathering of black journalists that the vp was misleading voters about his race, waded into even murkier waters by insinuating that Harris couldn’t be trusted because she “turned black” after promoting her Native American heritage.

Advertisement

Harris doesn’t need to alter the source code to prove she’s a black American of Indian descent; she was born that way.

Shereen Marisol Meraji, former co-host of NPR’s award-winning podcast “Code Switch,” said Harris’ identity is complex and might still be difficult to navigate in a rustic that when encouraged multiracial people to favor one identity over one other.

“If you go through the world like I do, where I try really hard to accept both sides of myself, it’s like you’re being put through an authenticity test,” said Meraji, who’s of Iranian and Puerto Rican descent.

An assistant professor of race and journalism on the University of California, Berkeley, Meraji added: “The ability to code-switch and enter into different communities … is a huge asset. And I think for people who are competing against Kamala Harris, it’s also quite threatening.”

Advertisement

Many politicians are changing the colour code to make sure that key information is conveyed to voters and constituents with cultural resonance. It’s a well-recognized concept amongst Americans of color, including the 33.8 million individuals who discover as a couple of race, in line with the most recent U.S. Census.

Code-switching is nothing latest, and it’s not a skill entirely foreign to white people. But it stays one of probably the most effective communication tools that politicians of color use to exert influence and gain power in places where they’ve historically lacked it.

Code-switching can increase the likelihood of people who find themselves disadvantaged or ignored as a consequence of systemic racism receiving fair treatment, receiving high-quality services, or finding employment.

When Trump questioned Harris’ race in response to an issue about his own rhetoric on diversity, equity and inclusion, ABC News host Rachel Scott responded by citing elements of the vp’s biography that might prove she is black.

Advertisement

Scott noted that Harris attended Howard University, one of probably the most outstanding historically black colleges and universities within the country. At Howard, Harris pledged the historically black sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha. And most significantly, her Jamaican father and Indian mother each immigrated to the U.S. within the Sixties throughout the Civil Rights Movement.

It can be unfaithful that Harris accepted her Black or Native American sexual orientation or switched between them only when it benefited her politically.

In 2003, when Harris was elected district attorney of San Francisco, she told an area newspaper chain that many individuals weren’t used to her identity. “My Native American heritage is just as strong as my African-American heritage. One does not exclude the other,” Harris said.

As a candidate for California attorney general, she spoke of her late mother, Shyamala Gopalan, who taught her and her sister to “share pride in our culture.” In 2009, Harris told India Abroad, “When you think about it, India is the oldest democracy in the world—so that’s part of my background, and it’s definitely had a huge impact on what I do today and who I am.”

Advertisement

During the 2012 re-election campaign of Barack Obama, the primary black U.S. president, Harris addressed being an outsider in races wherein her opponent could outspend her on ads and endorsements. “I overcame the odds and became the first black female attorney general,” she said, referring to her 2010 election in California.

Trump’s questioning of Harris’ identity, which drew groans and laughter, was reminiscent of his role as a number one proponent of the false theory that Obama is ineligible to change into president because he was not born within the U.S. Trump’s Republican vice presidential nominee, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, joined Trump on Wednesday in suggesting that Harris is “a fake person who caters to whatever audience is in front of her.”

“I don’t know if you saw this, but earlier this week… she went to Georgia and started speaking in a fake Southern accent,” Vance told the audience at a rally in Glendale, Arizona, referring to Harris’ campaign event in Atlanta, which was attended by a mostly black audience.

Vance, a white man whose wife is Indian American and whose three children are of mixed descent, is just not the primary American politician to concentrate on the speech and accents of politicians of color. In 2010, the late Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid got here under fire for comments he made years earlier suggesting that Obama appealed to voters because he was a light-skinned black man “without any Negro dialect unless he wanted to have it.”

Advertisement

Featured Stories

White politicians have also been known to code-switch when talking to mostly black or Latino audiences, and lots of have done so with various degrees of success. In 2006, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was criticized for adjusting the rhythm of her speech while delivering the eulogy at Coretta Scott King’s funeral at Atlanta’s historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. once preached.

The difference is that within the not-so-distant past, white politicians’ profession survival didn’t rely upon their ability to code-switch. Harris still has a special life experience.

Chen said politicians of any race or identity can construct healthy relationships across communities in the event that they show compassion and are attentive to the needs of their constituents.

“Whether you’re white, black or some other identity, how you present yourself in the community will determine whether it’s an authentic relationship,” she said. “You’ll be able to address their concerns more effectively because you’re more educated and you understand what they’re going through.”

Advertisement

This article was originally published on : thegrio.com

Politics and Current

Donald Trump’s attempt to embarrass Keisha Lance Bottoms with online cancellation, when he announces that she has already given up the fiery clamp

Published

on

By

Even after the day he returned to the oval office for the second term, Donald Trump once more showed that nothing would break through the rush of the fact that he has no job.

Early on Tuesday morning, shortly after midnight, Trump began to Social truth With his latest staff news, after all entitled “You are released”, his abused signature with the reality show “The Apprentice”.

“Our first day in the White House is not over yet!” Trump wrote. “My presidential staff office actively identifies and removes over a thousand presidential denominators from the previous administration, who do not agree with our vision of making America again.”

Advertisement
The mayor of Atlanta Keisha Lance Bottoms was called N-Słow in a text message after she refused to open her city again, despite the decision of Governor Brian Kemp. (Photo of Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

In other words, released – including the joint chiefs of staff Marek Milley, serving the National Infrastructure Advisory Council, chef Jose Andres, from the President’s Council for Sport, Fitness and Nutrition and former mayor of Atlanta Keish Lance Bottom, from the President’s Export Council – were critical without delay and the current president.

But it seems that Andres and Bottoms defeated a brand new boss.

Writing on X, Andres said that he gave up last week. “My two -year term is over”, the famous chef wrote.

A day late and a brief dollar … My resignation from the President’s Export Council was made on January 4, with the effect yesterday, “wrote Bottoms in a statement issued on Tuesday.” You cannot decelerate someone who has already given up. From all the things that are happening in the world, I’m undecided why I’m in the mind of Donald Trump at 1:30 after his inauguration, but I count as a badge of honor. “

Bottoms will not be a surprise. She proved that she was a talented surrogate in the Joe Biden 2020 campaign, based on her experiences cooperating with Trump as the mayor of Atlanta. A couple of weeks after the election, Anderson Cooper from CNN said: “He will eat his own children, I am sure that if he considered it careful.”

Advertisement

In his statement on Tuesday, Bottoms scolded the president for waste of time to staff, when his attention is required elsewhere.

“I hope that his attention to detail will be much more lit when it comes to world matters,” she said. “There are real problems that require attention all over the world. No matter how you voted, I think we can all agree, that aiming with me with a man who feeds resettled people in Los Angeles and arranged military general in the early morning hours through social media, is not the best use of time for the President of the United States.”

Was recently carried out by The Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionBottoms said that the critical point in her relationship with the Trump administration appeared during a pandemic, citing the lack of predictability in dealing with the crisis.

“I give an example, among the pandemic, the comments that the president presented whether it was injected with bleach or really encouraged people to trust science in Covid,” she said.

Advertisement

She criticized his use of federal agents to suppress demonstration over excessive strength by law enforcement agencies, signing a protest letter with dozens of other leaders of enormous cities.

Botty was the mayor of Atlanta in 2018–2021 before joining the Biden administration in 2022 as a senior advisor and director of the public commitment office. She returned to DC in 2023 to lead the import advice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nicwjeliniu

(Tagstranslate) Donald Trump (T) Keisha Lance Bottoms

Advertisement
This article was originally published on : atlantablackstar.com
Continue Reading

Politics and Current

Kamala Harris made a historic president: the new book gives her a breakthrough journey through photos – essence

Published

on

By

Getty images

Advertisement

The 107-day Kamala Harris campaign for the president of the United States was greater than a political run-it was a seismic moment in America’s history. Although the race didn’t end with victory, Harris broke the barriers with relentless determination, historical milestones and a message of joy that many inspired.

In the new book, IN The authors of Deborah Willis and Kevin Merida capture the transformation journey of Vice President Harris with convincing photography and great history. This book that hit stores on December 17 offers an intimate and refined portrait of Harris’s life, a formidable profession and a historical campaign, combining their public triumphs with personal moments that shaped its groundbreaking entrance.

Kamala Harris made a historic president's run: the new book gives her a breakthrough journey through photos
Simon and Schuster

This is a story that each Merida, journalist, in addition to the creator, in addition to Willis, photographer and photo historian, needed to be told, no matter the campaign’s consequence. “You know, sometimes we can simply take a story for granted. This person was the first and that, but literally broke the barriers and broke the ceilings not made of glass, but made of bricks at every level,” says Merida. “She is the first black American woman who is a vice president and the first of the main political party who received the president’s nomination and who had to be fully mastered.”

Thanks to over 150 photos, the iconic quotes and the most vital events from the vertical life and profession of Vice President Willis and Merida provide a photographic biography that consolidates Harris’s history as a testimony to progress and strength of possibilities.

Advertisement

The book offers an intimate have a look at its historical 107-day campaign to the President of the United States, launched after President Biden announced that he wouldn’t search for re-election. “It was different than everything we saw,” says Merida.

“107 days to conduct a campaign when we are used to presidential campaigns that were two years old in creation … The Democratic Party merged around this one candidate after the president decided not to run, so we were dealing with history only in the campaign and how it happened … so chronicly that we wanted to capture him in real time,” he adds.

“When she announced her campaign, I was surprised that many people in news ignored the history of her history,” says Willis, who tried to inform the layered story of Harris’s personal and skilled journey. “I wanted to show her identity – she had many – as a sister, daughter, mother. I wanted to show influential experiences that shaped her through photos,” adds Willis.

Kamala Harris made a historic president's run: the new book gives her a breakthrough journey through photos

One of the most striking elements of the book is concentration on joy – a topic often omitted in political narratives, but a deliberate purpose of this book. Willis and Merida claim that they intended to capture the joy and emotional resonance of the campaign-often inverted aspect of political travels.

This approach reflects their previous cooperation, which described the groundbreaking campaign of former President Barack Obama from 2008, with a similar attention to humanity behind the story.

Advertisement

“We were looking for ways to find the joy of the campaign, this emotional experience, which is often ignored during the campaign,” divides Willis from Essence. “When we noticed the door of the door to the door, the touch of the heart, the selfie that created the language that he directed me as a photographer to look at the eyes of the people he is looking at … those exchanges that created a desire to be part of the world of Harris,” he adds.

Kamala Harris made a historic president's run: the new book gives her a breakthrough journey through photos
US President Joe Biden (L) and the US Vice President and the candidate for the President of Democratic Kamala Harris pose for a selfie with fans at the end of the campaign rally at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 5 in Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, September 2, 2024 (photo Brendan Malialowski / AFP) (Photo Mrenowski / AFP / AFP vopts.

Book visualizations are a powerful tool for telling stories, with paintings akin to Harris engaging with young fans, sharing cordial moments together with his team and covering community members on the campaign trail. These photos provide readers with a sense of joy and combination that defined her sprint to the White House.

Both authors perceive their work as a tribute to Harris’s immunity and the wider impact of her journey. “Books are souvenirs … There is nothing stronger than visual images, because you can come back and you can consider and study them,” notes Merida.

Willis emphasized the importance of sharing the amazing journey of Harris. “We wanted to show the world not only what she achieved, but as she achieved it,” he says.

Thanks to the cooperation of Willis and Merida, they created a work that not only celebrates the achievements of Kamali Harris, but additionally inspires readers to see in history. As Merida put it: “Nobody arrives. Success is based on the influence, perseverance and belief that tomorrow can be better than today. The story of Kamali is proof of this.”

Advertisement

This article was originally published on : www.essence.com
Continue Reading

Politics and Current

Author Trump Stephen Miller says that America is “blessed” Kamala Harris is not the president, Rails against Dei

Published

on

By

The White House advisor, Stephen Miller, hit Kamala Harris after the former vp slammed the first 100 days of office of President Donald Trump during his last speech in California.

Miller, deputy chief of Trump’s policy staff, reacted on Thursday to Harris’s catchy remarks about the president during the press briefing of the White House, telling journalists that American public opinion should hear from the former presidential candidate, is “apology”.

Advertisement

“I think it was a great reminder for the Americans about how blessing we are, that the leader sitting today in the oval office is President Donald Trump, not President Kamala Harris,” said Miller, the important strategist of Trump’s immigration policy. “It was a helpful reminder what a parody and tragedy would be. It would be the end of America.”

Miller argued that Harris’ administration would proceed to proceed what he described as “radical regulations, choosing American energy … taxing our economy to death, pushing the cancerous ideology to awaken our children, ending his merit, ending scientific innovations (I) ending public security.” He added: “Citizens who follow the rights under the previous administration were punished while Gang Bangers received a red carpet treatment.”

“The only thing that Americans want to hear from Kamali Harris is an apology for joining Joe Biden,” remember that there was a spell border – in burdening the invasion of our country, “he said about the former vp.

On Wednesday, during a conversation on the twentieth anniversary of Emerge America in San Francisco, Harris warned that Trump was leading the country to economic and constitutional crises. However, she encouraged the Americans to recollect “this country is ours – it does not belong to who is in the White House.”

Advertisement
Kamala Harris, Emerge, Speech, Thegrio.com
San Francisco, California – April 30: former US Vice President Kamala Harris comprises a speech during the Emerge Gala twentieth Anniversary at Palace Hotel on April 30, 2025 in San Francisco, California. (Photo of Justin Sullivana/Getty Images)

Former Biden-Harris clerk said as an alternative of specializing in what Harris says in speeches, Miller should “focus on his own home.” She cited Thursday’s overthrow of Trump’s national security advisor, Mike Waltz, adding: “They are already shooting staff in 100 days. It’s a bit stupid.”

During the Thursday press briefing, Stephen Miller also directed against diversity, capital and inclusion, the important feature of Trump’s administration, which implemented the executive orders of prohibiting Dei politicians in the federal government and compelled private institutions, including university campuses, to follow the suitcase.

The NACP lawsuit says that the Education Department

Miller called the policy of Dei as a part of the Biden-Harris administration “racial discrimination” and certainly one of the “most important crises that President Trump inherited from the office.” Trump’s adviser said that the administration “fully enforces title VI, title VII and the title of the 9th of our Federal Code of Civil Rights.” Suggesting that Dei is essentially discriminating against white men who do not use such policies, he added: “discrimination based on breed and sex is prohibited by law, and this administration vigorously enforces it.”

“These are not the effects that we will feel today. These are the effects that we feel from now on. These are the effects that our children will feel,” she explained. “These withdrawals have significant implications for diversity in the workplace, protection of civil rights, and the general position of America.”

(Tagstranslata) Trump administration

Advertisement
This article was originally published on : thegrio.com
Continue Reading
Advertisement

OUR NEWSLETTER

Subscribe Us To Receive Our Latest News Directly In Your Inbox!

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.

Trending