During a heated participation at the largest yearly Black journalists’ assembly in the USA, former Republican president Donald Trump called into question the racial identity of his Democrat adversary, Kamala Harris, which resulted in a smatter of disapproval from the roughly 1,000 people in attendance. He interrogatively enquired whether Ms Harris was Indian or Black, implying that she seemingly switched from identifying herself as Indian to suddenly identifying as Black.
Being of Indian maternal and African paternal heritage, Ms Harris stands as the US’s inaugural Black and Asian-American Vice-President. On hearing Mr Trump’s comments, Karine Jean-Pierre, the press secretary of the White House, labelled them as offensive and disrespectful.
This issue of Ms Harris’s racial identity has been targeted with falsehoods by right-wing and conservative social network accounts. However, Ms Harris has habitually identified herself as both Black and South Asian-American.
From the commencement of her presidential campaign earlier this month, Ms Harris has been on the receiving end of numerous online racist and sexist assaults, inciting Republican party leaders to encourage politicians to avoid personal assaults and concentrate on her policy stances.
A panel interview that took place at the event began tensely when ABC News correspondent Rachel Scott challenged Mr Trump to elucidate why Black citizens ought to back him given his previous racist utterances. Reacting to this, Mr Trump condemned the question as terrible, aggressive and disgraceful, labelling ABC a counterfeit network.
He proclaimed, “I have been the best president for the Black population since Abraham Lincoln”. Mr Trump’s initial presence at the yearly convention of the National Association of Black Journalists in Chicago was met with objection from several attendees, resulting in a convention co-chair resigning in protest.
Mr Trump had managed to appeal to Black men following president Joe Biden’s struggle to rally Black voters, historically the staunchest supporters of the Democratic cause. Pew Research suggests that Biden still led the Black voters with 92% against Trump’s 8% in the 2020 race.
However, Biden’s choice to step aside for Ms Harris may present hurdles for Mr Trump in maintaining his influence. Trump has been meticulously wooing Black voters, organising events in urban areas boasting substantial Black communities, such as Atlanta, where he is scheduled to stage a rally come Saturday.
The final result of the presidential race is expected to hang on slim majorities in a few key battleground states. A Reuters/Ipsos poll, published on Tuesday, gave a slight edge to Trump over Harris by a margin of 43% to 42%, falling within the poll’s margin of error. This is the latest in a string of polls unveiling Harris closing the gap that Trump had carved out during the concluding weeks of Biden’s struggling campaign. – Reuters