During a recent discussion in Pennsylvania, a group of Black male voters expressed doubts about Vice President Kamala Harris’s racial identity, with some stating they did not consider her to be Black.
The conversation, captured in a barbershop interview, revealed a consensus among the men that Harris was of mixed heritage, identifying her as “half Black and half Asian.”
“Is Kamala gonna make you a little more likely or less likely to vote Democrat?” CBS news affiliate reporter Joel D. Smith asked the gentlemen.
Black Pennsylvania voters say Kamala Harris isn't Black in viral CNN clip: 'To me, no' https://t.co/d0fftfHe23
— Fox News (@FoxNews) August 5, 2024
“Greg, hold on Greg. Is Kamala Black, yes or no?” one man asked.
“I’m gonna let her speak on that, but to me, no,” the barber said.
“I share that same view,” another said.
“I heard she wasn’t,” another added. “I heard she’s half Black and half Asian.”
The clip aired shortly after former President Trump’s controversial comments at the National Association of Black Journalists event, where he questioned Harris’s racial identity, claiming he only recently recognized her as Black.
“She was always of Indian heritage, and she was only promoting Indian heritage,” Trump said. “I didn’t 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. So, I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?”
Trump’s remarks faced backlash for disrespecting her identity, and commentators noted that the opinions of the barbershop group do not represent the broader Black community, with many African-American callers expressing that they viewed these voters as outliers.
“To walk into a room full of Black journalists and attack someone’s ‘Blackness’ is another level of disrespect. To anyone who needs a reminder: we can’t change the color of our skin, and we don’t want to,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson wrote.
“I understand he is a candidate for president, but Republicans have generally refused to attend our conventions or speak at them. And he has done that so, why now? Because he is trying to discredit Vice President Kamala Harris? And I don’t think that is fair to our membership,” NABJ member Justice B. Hill said.
