Donald Trump is proving heās racist and stupid with his latest post.
In a Truth Social post Thursday morning, Donald Trump appeared to suggest, again, thatĀ presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris isnāt really Black, ramping up his identity-based attacks to the horror of those in his party who consider racism a losing electoral strategy.
Earlier in the week, many GOP strategists, including in the Trump camp,Ā worriedĀ that attacks on Harrisās race and genderāwhich seemed all but inevitable considering Trumpās history of racism and misogynyāwould pose a serious liability for the campaign. āWe hope he doesnāt act like a crazy racist and sexist person, but we canāt control him,ā a source close to the campaignĀ toldĀ The Washington Post.
These hopes were quickly dashed in the course of Trumpās interview with the National Association of Black Journalists Wednesday afternoon, in which the candidateĀ claimedĀ that, for years, Vice President Kamala Harris āwas Indian all the way, and then suddenly she made a turn and she became a Black person.ā
Hereās what I donāt get, regardless of if your black or indian, if you grew up in america with dark skin you likely have faced all the same struggles that any black voter would care about.
Edit: Assumptions got challenged, read replies.
So even if he was right (heās not, heās what physicists would call ānot even wrongā), so what? Are racists any less racist to indians than african americans?
I donāt get the playbook here, non-racists would just be confused and racists would still be racists.
No, thatās very much not true, except maybe on a very superficial āsome bigot called me a slurā kind of level. Indian-Americans are disproportionately wealthy and highly-educated; African-Americans are disproportionately the opposite. African-Americans have been subjected to institutional racism for centuries that is still ongoing because of the extreme wealth disparities it created (e.g. even after theoretically abolishing redlining decades ago, houses in black neighborhoods still donāt appreciate in value at the same rate ones in white neighborhoods doā¦ except when the neighborhood gentrifies and forces the black people out). Meanwhile, the bulk of Indian-Americans arrived after the Civil Rights Act, Fair Housing Act, etc. and had the means and opportunity to move straight into middle-class white neighborhoods and assimilate.
Thatās not to say that Indian-Americans donāt face āstruggles:ā discrimination against Indian-American tech workers in particular is definitely a thing, especially motivated by a āthe H1-Bs turk err jerbsā sentiment. (Meanwhile, Black engineers are treated either normally or at worst, as a curiosity, because there are so few of them to begin with. Pop quiz: why are there so few of them to begin withā¦?)
So, no: while itās true that all minorities are subject to discrimination, the type and extent of that discrimination varies greatly between different minority groups. The struggles are not the same.
Getting back to the real question you asked: the reason Trump wants to treat Harris as Indian, not Black, is to try to delegitimatize her in the eyes of Black voters as being some kind of elite that doesnāt actually understand their struggle.
Huh, very valid points. I guess I was assuming casual racism that would come from only appearances and assumptions. But you are right that economic class heavily impacts the discrimination a person faces and thatās specifically where african americans have been hit the hardest historically.
Thanks for providing more context.
Valid points indeed, but I think this strategy might not work in his favor, because anyone who had to endure any kind of racial discrimination based on something like skin color will be offended by these attacks. The old white man simply doesnāt have any legitimacy to comment on someone being too black or not black enough. Itās disgusting and weird.
It wonāt. He only understands racism from a white perspective and is trying to apply that elsewhere, which is why itās extra ridiculous.
I think heās thinking itāll go something like:
Potential black voters in swing states: āKamala is half Indian?? Hell no, Iām not voting for her! As everyone knows, all people are racist pieces of shit towards anyone who doesnāt align exactly with the ethnicity they are, so Iām staying home!ā