After Donald Trump told journalists on Wednesday that his presidential opponent Kamala Harris āturned Blackā for political gain, Trumpās comments have impacted the way many multirace voters are thinking about the two candidates.
āShe was only promoting Indian heritage,ā the former president said during an interview at the National Association of Black Journalists convention last week. āI didnāt 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.ā
āIs she Indian or is she Black?ā he asked.
Sheās 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 Harrisā politics more than others but, overall, they told NBC News that Trumpās comments will not go unnoticed.
Itās because the question is weaponized. It makes the assumption that just because you donāt look like me that you canāt possibly be a ārealā American. And asking the same in reverse doesnāt work, because white people in the US love saying where their ancestors are from.
My response is mostly a joke anyway. But howās their originally being from somewhere else different from an Asian personās originally being from somewhere else?
Because in their heads, being from Europe is normal and being from Asia is weird at best and bad at worst. Itās an assumption that if you donāt look like them then you arenāt from here. The next step is if you arenāt from here then you donāt belong here.
If they were to ask a white person in the US where they were from and the person answered, āPittsburgh,ā then the conversation would move to something about sports. What always happens and is very annoying is that when the same question asked to an Asian person with the same answer of Pittsburgh, the next topic NEVER moves to sports or weather or how many bridges the city has (a lot). The next question is always a probe to find out where you REALLY are from, because you sure as shit arenāt from America. If you were a real American you wouldnāt have eyes that looked like that. Itās a way to prove in their head that, even though you were born in the US and love football and drive a truck, thereās an anchor that makes you anything other than American.
If racists were capable of logical, sound thoughts they wouldnāt be racist.
I wouldnāt say that being racist is necessarily about the inability to think logically or rationally. Itās sometimes that, of course, but sometimes itās because they just never tried to think about it. Their life experiences just never put them in that situation.
But most often, I think, itās because they can think logically, have tried to think logically, but the conclusions would make them feel less superior and thus they encounter a mental block. In other words, itās about insecurity, first and foremost.