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Kamala Harris reacts to attacks on her race: ‘I don’t listen to it. I really know clearly who I am.”

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In a brand new interview on the favored sports podcast “All The Smoke,” Vice President Kamala Harris responded to attacks on her racial identity that falsely questioned her blackness.

When asked by co-host Matt Barnes, a former NBA player who was herself born right into a multi-ethnic family, with an Italian mother and a black father, about how she was misrepresented by former President Donald Trump, Harris, whose father is a black Jamaican and whose mother is Indian, it explained how silly these attacks looked.

“You’ve always been confident in who you are, but what do you think when you see people question who you are?” Barnes said.

“First of all, I don’t listen to it. I’m really clear about who I am, and if another person is not, they’ve to undergo their very own therapy, it’s none of my business,” Harris said. “My mother was very clear; she raised two black girls to be two proud black women. And that was never a matter.

The false questioning of Harris’ blackness was amplified by former President Donald Trump, who was interviewed on the NABJ conference in August and used the stage to spread a lie about how Harris identified.

During the All the Smoke interview, Harris further explained why questions on multi-ethnicity or mixed race must bear in mind America’s complex history, with segregation tied to systems similar to “one drop rule”, which meant that anyone with even one ancestor of African descent was considered black and discriminated against by law.

Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris waits to speak during a campaign rally at 900 United Auto Workers on August 8, 2024 in Wayne, Michigan. (Photo: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

“Over the years, journalists – some, not most – wanted to talk about it, and I said OK, if you want to have that conversation, I’m willing to do it, but sit down and get comfortable for a few hours if you want to start talking about race in America.” Harris said truthfully, as Barnes and co-host Stephen Jackson nodded in agreement.

“You want to talk concerning the 1/8 rule? You want to speak about what this implies by way of who you’re perceived to be, and the impact it could have on the remaining of your life, no matter who you really are, by way of your God-given abilities and the rights you could have and it is best to Possess?”

Harris, an HBCU (Historically Black College) and Howard University graduate, also spoke concerning the importance of HBCUs and why the Biden-Harris administration helped invest $16 billion at school funding.

“So a big part of my work, especially in the Senate and now as vice president, has been to increase federal funding for HBCUs. Because again, I know they are centers of academic excellence, centers of academic excellence, but they don’t necessarily have the same types of resources,” Harris explained.

“When I was a senator, I was liable for helping get billions to literally modernize the physical structure since it’s old. And I think increasingly more persons are realizing what you are saying – possibly we have skipped an era, but we’re getting back to a degree where more people understand what our HBCUs do and supply them with more financial support. But we’ve got to.

During the interview, the vice chairman talked about her economic plan for America should she be elected president and the way she deals with right-wing political attacks for being a stepmother.

To watch the total interview, visit the web site YouTube channel for “All the Smoke”.

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This article was originally published on : thegrio.com

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