Kamala Harris responds to Donald's NABJ snafu with dignity and class
BTW, race is a social construct and Trump is a poopy head
Someone asked me to give my thoughts on what happened at the NABJ conference, so here are my two cents—or maybe a bag of cents. I have a lot of cents to toss into the fray.
I was going to wait to collect my thoughts, but the question prodded me awake, and my thoughts began pouring out.
Forgive me for being a bit long-winded; this topic still burns my soul a bit.
What had happened was
Bill Palmer explains the entire scenario best here:
At another point Trump spewed this racist drivel about Kamala Harris: “I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago but 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 also responded to a question about inflation by whining about how Kamala Harris has replaced Joe Biden on the ticket. At another point Trump began ranting incoherently about the criminal cases against him and talking about “George Slopadopoulos.” The panelists began trying to steer Trump back to the topic at hand, but Trump rudely said “Excuse me, you’re the one that held me up for 35 minutes.”
This interview is nothing short of a train wreck. Trump is coming off as racist, clueless, and senile. -PALMER REPORT
In short, Trump couldn’t help being Trump for five seconds and spewed all kinds of racist bullshit in front of a demographic he needs to win.
This is not 4D chess, folks; this is damn stupidity!
Pulled off the stage for being a maniac
I am sure Trump and his Cabal are crying about being called a racist after he said mad racist things during the NAJB event and even went so far as to tighten the bottle cap on the water of one of the female journalists sitting next to him because he is sooooo mature.
I am also sure his infantile base high-fived and giggled over this churlish display, but most of mainstream America is not amused.
Things got so bad for Trumpy that his handlers pulled him off the stage 30-minutes into what was supposed to be an hour-long event.
Yas, the schadenfreude is real—watch the short below:
https://youtube.com/shorts/WaF8q3ZxAm0?si=U_8Yi1yJoE4CrbwA
Kamal Responds—I LOVE IT
People wondered what Kamala Harris would say to Trump’s claim that she ain’t Black, with some wringing their hands over the response. A few pundits said if she made the wrong move here, she might even lose her acquired momentum.
Really? Gotta love how she was the one attacked but would be in hot water for how she defended herself, not Trump, for being the instigator.
Sigh. I digress:
Not hesitating after the controversial event, Harris For President Communications Director Michael Tyler released the statement on the same day. Huff Post Deputy Editor Phillip Lewis shared the full memo across social media.
“The hostility Donald Trump showed on stage today is the same hostility he has shown throughout his life, throughout his term in office, and his campaign for president as he seeks to regain power and inflict his harmful Project 2025 agenda on the American people,” reads the statement.
The Harris Campaign continued to elaborate:
“Trump lobbed personal attacks and insults at Black journalists the same way he did throughout his presidency – while he failed Black families and left the entire country digging out of the ditch he left us in. Donald Trump has already proven he cannot unite America, so he attempts to divide us.
“Today’s tirade is simply a taste of the chaos and division that has been a hallmark of Trump’s MAGA rallies this entire campaign. It’s also exactly what the American people will see from across the debate stage as Vice President Harris offers a vision of opportunity and freedom for all Americans. All Donald Trump needs to do is stop playing games and actually show up to the debate on September 10.” - VIBE
BOOM, SHAKALA, BOOM, BABY!
MAGA likely has no idea what Trump said to create such a stir, and any response to the fuckery from them will likely only make things worse. As the mother of bi-cultural children, I will happily explain it to them.
My kids are so-called “mixed”
Both my children have Native/African American and Welsh/Irish heritage—they are bi-cultural/bi-ethnic children, and I would say most Americans, to a degree, are.
As a Black woman with Cherokee Indian heritage, I prefer the term bi-ethnic or bi-cultural as opposed to mixed race because 1) we are all the same race—I mean, I didn’t mate with a giraffe, and 2) being mixed is closer to truth, again, for all of us.
How we identify when our bi-heritage aspect can vary, but racists like Trump have a special hatred for darker-skinned “mixes” and often tell children of mixed couples to “pick a side.”
What side?
They are both, and identifying with both aspects of your heritage is important as having access to both cultural experiences is key to understanding your family history.
Your legacy, even.
Besides, they never have an issue if someone says they are of Welsh and German descent and identifies with both aspects of their heritage. I suppose that is okay because, in their minds, this means said person is “White”, and “White is all right!”
It’s when any tinge of color above tan enters the equation that it gets ticklish for bigots and racists.
Racist asshats detest racial ambiguity, largely because they are deathly afraid of learning that the lovely blond they married could have Negro blood in her. Hell, some women and men have been killed upon discovery of their Black heritage for the crime of “trying to pass…”
What they fail to recognize or acknowledge is that race is a social construct, as we have been able to see with the birth of bi-ethnic twins.
Bi-Ethnic twins show that race is just a social construct
A 2015 CNN story showcased bi-ethnic twins, one with lighter skin and one with darker skin. Fraternal Twins, no one believes they are related:
Thanks to a rare quirk of nature, Lucy is the alabaster-skinned redhead, and Maria has their part-Jamaican mother’s dark skin and hair. Images of the Aylmer sisters of Gloucester, United Kingdom, rocketed around the Internet this week when a British newspaper carried their story.
…
The girls were born to a white father and a biracial mom in 1997, according to the Daily Mail story that started all the fuss.
‘No one ever believes we are twins,” the newspaper quoted Lucy Aylmer as saying. “Even when we dress alike, we still don’t look like sisters, let alone twins.”
Appearing Tuesday on “Good Morning Britain,” the sisters said they’re always facing doubters who can’t believe they are related, much less twin sisters.
Some even asked whether Lucy was adopted, she told the show.
“It was pretty hard,” she said. “It went on in secondary school as well, and it wasn’t very nice.” —
Maria said they’ve been told the chances of such an occurrence are “one in a million.” — CNN
I am not sure why folks think this is so rare; growing up in Black communities, I have seen pale people born to dark parents and the opposite. It happens.
This couldn't occur if “race,” was a real thing.
A tenth of Negro blood
On the topic of racial identity and heritage, I had some people try to turn it around, and Blacksplain, for example, that saying Obama was Black was racist of me because I was erasing the White side of his heritage.
It's these same folks who always try to act like Black people invented racial categories, which incidentally, they didn't care about until People of Color tied the word American to our identity.
All of a sudden racial classification was wrong.
Besides, isn't it equally racist, by that token, to erase his Black heritage?
It is weird how an individual is Black until they do something monumental, then they desire to negate that fact. For instance, when bi-cultural Tiger Woods first hit the golfing scene, the media described him as Black; however, when he started winning tournaments, the media dubbed him as “Asian.”
I experienced this weirdness myself after discussing my German Great-Greats among friends. One person piped up that my German heritage is the reason I was “Smart…”
They said that—to my face.
Anyhoo, I had to school that “Calling Obama Black is racist” Brotha’ on the origin of where a tenth of Negro blood came from and that I think it is okay for kids of bi-ethnic descent to claim any aspect of their heritage because that is who they are.
A tenth of Negro blood, also called the one-drop rule, is a bygone slavery artifact, where any individual who had even a smidge of Black blood was Black. This was used to enslave or take the property of even the palest and blondest of citizens if it could be proven the individual was “passing” and not “really white…”
It was a way to distill a complex social identity concept into something simple, nasty, and racist.
That said…
Being aware of disparities within disenfranchised communities is meaningful, and you have to be able to classify groups for this purpose.
For instance, in France, they have a policy against speaking openly about race. Noble, in theory, this led to the Franco-Asian community being grievously harmed and over-policed with no real recognition of what was happening.
What it's Like Being Half Chinese and Half French 🇫🇷🇨🇳 (youtube.com)
Massive protests erupted as the “Don't Speak about Race” ideology was used as a cover to oppress minority groups within France’s borders.
PARIS (Reuters) - At least 13,000 people attended a rally in Paris on Sunday to protest against what they say is a crime wave targeting the Chinese community in France, police said, after a Chinese textile designer died after being mugged last month.
Demonstrators waving French flags and sporting T-shirts printed with the slogans "Stop violence, muggings, insecurity" or "Equality for all, security for all" marched from the Place de Republique square to the Bastille in eastern Paris, asking for more police protection. —Reuters 2016
By not speaking of “race” as it pertains to disenfranchisement, France left vulnerable communities at risk for abuse that would not be accounted for.
Let us limit the study of race to census takers, historians, and advocates and leave cultural heritage as an aside consideration, a mere incidental in everyday life, as it should be.
May the Lotus POTUS prevail
I read somewhere that Kamala means lotus in Sanskrit. How beautiful, just like our Veep! America needs a unifier instead of a divider, and VP Harris is the right stuff!
Go, Lotus POTUS, go!
This phrase is a masterpiece. This whole piece is a masterpiece, Alicia!👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻💙
"BTW, race is a social construct and Trump is a poopy head"
A complete and utter disaster for trump. He demonstrated that he was a racist and couldn’t answer any question directed at him. All that came out of his mouth were the usual lies, deflections and sheer nonsense.
Also, I kind of feel like Trump’s horrific sexism gets lost in the discussion here. “Nasty,” in particular, is Trump’s go-to sexist insult with “rude” as a close second. No male interviewer gets either label.
Trump is a tired old, one trick pony. He is lazy, boring and a racist. He hates strong women who challenge him and relies on the old sad, boring, ignorant playbook that is just pathetic given it is 2024.
Trump’s own people took him off the stage yesterday. But it’s up to us, the voters, to do that in November!
In addition to some official merch, I ordered this Kamala Removes Stubborn Orange Stains T! 👇 🤣
https://libtees-2.creator-spring.com/listing/votek
Can’t wait to wear it!
VOTE.