A slew of accounts on Twitter appeared to claim that presidential candidate Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) is not Black, largely in part to her comments on bussing when she grilled her colleague Joe Biden at the Democratic debate’s second round on Thursday.
The debate took a heated—and somewhat emotional—turn when Harris directly addressed Biden about previously working with former segregationist senators James Eastland and Herman Talmadge.
In it, she referred to a “little girl” who was working to integrate schools. “That little girl was me,” she said.
A series of Twitter accounts attacked her for being “not Black,” as pointed out by disinformation researcher Caroline Orr:
https://twitter.com/RVAwonk/status/1144461081189875712
Some of the tweets in Orr’s screenshots, such as by usersShyam Thyoadmin, @Reebfree, @kjjdc12345 and @shyndixie did not appear in a Twitter search on Friday morning.
https://twitter.com/Mark22336699/status/1144432320083976192
https://twitter.com/MyCrashIs/status/1144441001773191168
https://twitter.com/ArlieEHammons/status/1144427536673312773
The clamor went all the way up to the president’s son, in a tweet he’s since deleted.
Donald Trump Jr. publicly questioned whether Kamala Harris is black and then deleted it. The media is missing. You can fight back right now against Trump Jr. by making a donation directly to Kamala and helping us have her back too. Retweet & chip in here: https://t.co/12f5cv5bDr pic.twitter.com/iIT1yVL6MA
— Party Majority (@PartyMajority) June 28, 2019
In a comment to the Daily Dot, Twitter said that the tweets about Harris’ race were not the work of coordinated campaigns.
What is relevant for many in the Black community is Harris’ “tough on crime” history that has put Black men in prison, which some users on Twitter pointed out—and also proved that you can do so without questioning someone’s racial heritage:
although Kamala Harris may have won this debate, let’s not forget her career consists of anti-blackness as evidenced by the mass incarceration of Black folx 🗣
— ash (@marieash07) June 28, 2019
https://twitter.com/yusuf_VI/status/1144479882551808001
Harris, who is the daughter of an Indian immigrant and Jamaican immigrant, has had people obsess over race before, and she remains unphased by the confusion others tend to project on her.
“I am who I am. I’m good with it” she recently said, and refers to herself with just one word: “American.” If elected, she would be the first African American, first Indian American, and first Asian American to take a seat at the White House.
READ MORE:
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- Kamala Harris grills Biden over segregationist remarks
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