12mo ago

Mixed-race voters say Donald Trump’s attacks on Kamala Harris’ race are painfully familiar

www.nbcnews.com

After Donald Trump told journalists on Wednesday that his presidential opponent Kamala Harris “turned Black” for political gain, Trump’s comments have impacted the way many multirace voters are thinking about the two candidates.

“She was only promoting Indian heritage,” the former president said during an interview at the National Association of Black Journalists convention last week. “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.”

“Is she Indian or is she Black?” he asked.

She’s 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 Harris’ politics more than others but, overall, they told NBC News that Trump’s comments will not go unnoticed.

135 comments

Multiracial American voters say they have heard similar derogatory remarks about their identities their whole lives.
half asian here. from childhood onward, i get asked "where are you from," and by the look on their face they're not satisfied with "tennessee" because obviously you can't be from anywhere in the states if you're less than 100% white. so anytime someone says "where are you from" what i hear is "what chingchong chinaman land are you"
- Honest question here. It's something I avoid asking most of the time because I'm not sure whether or not it's appropriate, but would it be okay to ask, "where did your ancestors come from," or would that still be offensive to a multiracial person? It's not something that comes up regularly or anything, but occasionally I'll end up in conversation with someone who is multiracial and clearly another American and I'll think, "I wonder what their family story is? How did their predecessors get here? Where did they come from?" But I usually don't ask because I don't want to offend them.
  Obviously I wouldn't just walk up to a stranger and ask them, I mean if I'm getting to know someone.
  Edit: I should add that I'm white, but my family history is pretty weird, so I do like to hear about others' history regardless of their race, I just don't want to broach the subject where it might be a sensitive one.
  
  i can't speak for all multiracial people (or anyone else for that matter). but personally any question that doesn't pretend to be something other than it is is fine. if the thing you want to know is someone's ancestry or ethnic background, then don't ask "where are you from." that's all.
  also, still not speaking for anyone else, but i've gotten pretty numb to people being racist towards me, because i decided that if someone's going to judge people by their race (or anything else they didn't choose for themself), then there's no reason to care what they think anyway. though i will mock and ridicule racists for the sake of others who experience suffering from racism. especially kids.
  
  As a full Asian, asking "What's your ethnic background?" is far better than "where are you from?"
  It's so fucking annoying when people ask me "where are you from?" Because I'll answer "Oh, I live just a few miles away." And then they go, "no, I mean where are you really from?" And then I'll answer, "I'm from a few miles away you fucking racist."
  Btw, at a funeral I got this line of questioning one too many times and actually said that.
  It's also contextual. Asking this after a few beers and some light conversation, asking about my background is cool. But it being the first or second question makes it weird.
  Thanks for asking FlyingSquid.
  
  Assuming the context is appropriate I think an acceptable way to ask is "what's your heritage" - imo the important thing is not to sound like you're assuming they're a foreigner just because their ethnicity / appearance. I think asking about someone's family story or where their family is from is also a good way to ask because it's clear you're asking about their family and not assuming that it has bearing on the person's upbringing.
  It also can be really confusing when you're a mixed and natural born citizen and you have no idea if "where are you from" is just smalltalk and they want to know where you grew up or if they're assuming based on your appearance that you immigrated and assuming that the answers to "where did you grow up" and "where are your ancestors from" are 1 and the same. So personally I like when people are more specific because when asked where I'm from I'm just going to ask if they mean where I grew up or where my parents are from.
  
  My personal fall back to get others to open up in any type of conversation is to start talking about food. Comfort food, junk food, family recipes/traditions; it's all good because people can't help but share when it comes to food. I've learned so much about different cultures and some damn good recipes just talking about food with everyone.
  
  Hi! Coming from another half asian, I personally find it more tasteful to ask "what is your ethnicity".
  
  but would it be okay to ask, "where did your ancestors come from,"
  I'd suggest it would be best if someone's racial background wasn't made to be an important part of the conversation at all.
  At least not unless it happens to have some relevance like in relation to places they have personally experienced or languages they speak or something like that.
  Where a person's grandparents came from isn't (or shouldn't be) a big deal compared to most other things about that person.
  
  It's different for everyone. For me, I don't like it when strangers ask so I don't ask when I'm the one who is curious. If it's friends or someone getting to know me, it doesn't matter how it's asked. I do not mind. If I'm handing you a beer and say " that'll be x dollars." And you respond by asking where I'm from, it bothers me. It's the difference between getting to know someone and trying to fit them in a box. I get that sometimes people are curious but not every curiosity has to be satisfied. When I tell them that I'm from US it's common to be followed by "fine! Where are your parents from?" That's just weird. I'd never approach a stranger and ask about their parents.
  
  Or “what ethnicity are you”?
- Half Asian here. At least in my experience, those questions don't tend to come from a place of malice, just a genuine curiosity of ethnic background since they can't figure it out by look.
  Sure, there are some racists too. But I've had plenty of ambivalent conversations that start off that way. Beats starting a conversation on weather or other generic topics.
  
  i prefer to assume positive intent whenever i can. then i read things like the title of this post.
  
  It may not come from malice but it sure makes them stupid when interactions like this is normal.
  https://youtu.be/d_CaZ4EAexQ?si=ty9I1zv8isihm8nY
  Also, not everybody is comfortable talking about that as a starter conversation.
  
  Half Asian here and yeah I never assume someone’s coming from a bad place when they ask.
  I hope people don’t become too afraid to ask where someone’s from in fear of looking racist or some dumb shit. It’s natural to be curious and I’ve had people take guesses from Indian to India.
- Meanwhile my wife is from overseas. But because she's white, they'll quite happily let her know about all their xenophobia and racism, because they think she's one of them.
  "Not you, you're one of the good ones" is trotted out constantly among those who suddenly remember who they're talking to.
- because obviously you can’t be from anywhere in the states
  try it with native american ancestory that is no longer native due to the pogroms in the 19th & 20th centuries; it doesn't matter that we were here first, we truly can't be from here anymore because nearly all of the ones who lived on this side of the border were genocided out of existence so now we have to get permission to live on the land we've been inhabiting for thousands of years.
  the icing on this cake is pointing this out brands you a malcontent for doing so.
  
  And then you also get a bunch of white people (like me until a few years ago) who think it's a point of pride they are 1/16th Cherokee without realizing it likely means their great great grandmother was raped by a white guy. My great great grandparents were married, but I have no idea whether it was a forced marriage by him stealing her or if it was a love marriage.
- I lived in Tennessee for a few years. I've never been greeted so many times with "do you speak English?" Sometimes I'd just be like "nah!" And walk away.
  
  no hablo ingles, pendejo
- That reminds me of the scene in Parks and Rec where someone asks where Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari) is from. He responds Illinois. Then the person asks "but where are your parents from?" He responds "Georgia."
  
  fine I'll rewatch parks and rec
- I really hate that racists have ruined a perfectly good question. I often want to actually ask people where in the US they're from, but I can't ask the straightforward "where are you from?" if the person isn't white because I know it can easily be interpreted as the racist version.
  Instead I now ask "are you from [city we're in]?" to try to make it clear I'm assuming they're from the US.
  
  “You’ve got a bit of an accent where in the country are you from?”
  “Are you originally from around here?”
  And various other phrasings can take the racist edge off of it. It also helps avoid people answering that their family is Vietnamese when you really want to know that they’re from Dayton.
- My grandmother on my mother's side was Chinese-American. She and my grandfather met in Hawaii during WW2, and that's where my mom was raised, so we observed a lot of Hawaiian and Chinese traditions when I was growing up.
  My grandfather on my father's side was raised Jewish by Romanian immigrants, but converted to Christianity, and my father eventually became an atheist. But we still occasionally celebrated certain Jewish holidays to honor his ancestors. My dad's mother was the child of German immigrants. She taught me to make some delicious German treats.
  For my part, I pass completely as white (I'm a super pale ginger). But I'm proud of all my heritage, and my whole life I've hated questions on forms that ask me to pick one. If there's an "other" option or a "prefer not to answer" option, that's what I pick.
  Ancestry isn't a box you check, it's a story you tell.
- I always take the opportunity to mess with people who ask me that question.
  Where are you from? - (a city in the US).
  Where did you move from. - (an other city in the US).
  Where where you born. - (a city in Europe).
  Uhhh.... So uh.... I mean.... What's the... <starts sweating about a politely way to say, "the not-white part">
- Me: Tennessee? Really? I'd have guessed Arkansas.
- "where are you from?"
  "Tennessee"
  "No, I meant what country you originaly come from"
  
  yep. i've had that conversation almost verbatim
  
  A conversation like that was front page news not so long ago.
  "No, what part of Africa are you from?"
  "I don’t know, they didn’t leave any records"
- This is perfectly captured in the recent Civil War movie, the Jesse Plemons' scene, "What kind of American are you?".
- I'm not American and don't live there, but "where are you from" shouldn't be offensive, unless you're native American. Just normalize asking white people where they are from, too.
  
  It's because the question is weaponized. It makes the assumption that just because you don't look like me that you can't possibly be a "real" American. And asking the same in reverse doesn't work, because white people in the US love saying where their ancestors are from.
- I asked the question to a mixed race Asian guy. Not because I care about what country half his family originally came from, but because he was the first Asian guy I met that had a deep southern accent.
  
  my sister has a southern accent. it's adorable to me too
  
  Jesus people don't even see how racist they are, pretty sad.
  Hint - it was quite racist of you to ask that of somebody because they didn't match your stereotypes.
I think we go with his logic and make sure Republicans know we're agreeing with them:
Kamala Harris has an Indian mother and a black father. Therefore, she is Indian.
Barack Obama has a white mother and a black father. Therefore, he is white.
I'm not sure when we'll get our first black president, but I look forward to our first Indian president.
Yup I'm a quarter white, and watching my racist school system sit me down and tell me I couldn't put white on my SAT survey was eye opening. They were so concerned that they needed to see pictures of my parents and have written proof of my heritage.
- I'm Italian and just the thought of an official form asking for your race looks completely crazy and fucked up. Also, it would be completely illegal here.
  Why are the US so f-cked up?
  
  The US has a very complicated history with race. And demographic data is important in the right hands to resolve issues our history created, but in the wrong hands...
- I was so hoping you were going to say that they discouraged you from putting white so that it opened you up for diversity-based scholarships. I am so disappointed to hear that was not the case. What they did is really messed up.
Why is this hard for people to understand‽
Like I’m white as the first 41 presidents, but it’s always just seemed fucking obvious that mixed race and mixed ethnicity people are just simultaneously both.
- Even for white people - haven't you ever heard someone say something like, "I'm German and Irish on my mother's side"?
  The idea of having two different heritages is completely common and obvious. It's not that Trump or other Republicans are having trouble wrapping their heads around the concept. It's a racist attack, plain and simple.
  
  I'm still confused as to who they are trying to convince that Harris isn't really black. Whose vote would change from Harris to Trump based on Trump claiming she isn't really black? Or, if he's not after votes, what will believing she's not really black change for how his own followers see things if he loses?
  Or does he think he's out of the water as far as his legal troubles go and maybe he's just trying to exit gracefully without making his base turn on him by making it look like he's still fighting?
- You have the ability to form thoughts, this puts you about above 90% of the average conservative fan base.
- Unfortunately, the experience of being mixed race is a bit more complicated than that.
  There are several groups that see me as a potential member but it's usually qualified with an implied "half-member". There's really no group that looks at me and instinctively says, "One of us."
  
  It’s also fun being with one group, and that one group is racist against the other group.
  And then going to the other group and that other group is racist to the first one.
  
  Ope, yeah that must really suck
If you vote for Trump as a POC you're not the brightest bulb anyway. He's openly racist lol
- But what if you're a POC and a billionaire who believes Trump will make you wealthier?
  At least my parents won't vote republican because of homophobia. They're convinced dems will take all their money to give to immigrants and black people and force them to use paper straws...
  
  In all fairness, paper straws are the worst
  
  They don't want money to help their own and are fine with Trump being openly racist against blacks? Idk man, make your own conclusions. Don't seem like good people to me.
- The incidious persistence of many systems of oppression can often be at least partially attributed to people in the "middle tears" actively participating in the system simply to avoid being the bottom rung...
  To some, a candidate that will prop them up at the expense of a different group is a subconscious survival adaptation
  So I wouldn't say they're dumb necessarily, just that they've been indoctrinated from childhood into the same system that keeps them down
  (I say this as an Asian American that has had to really struggle with the duality of how I treated black and indigenous people in the past, during times when I understood and personally experienced the ill effects of racism. Time when I recognized and accepted that racism exists and claimed it unfair when it happened to me)
This is exactly the kind of thing intersectionality provides. You can attack her for being too black, not black enough, etc and with each attack you're misfiring into the crowd. A minority in this country are black or asian or Kamala's exact racial and gender makeup, but a majority of people belong to one "out" group or another.
Surprised they haven’t started to ask for her birth certificate yet.
- In Obama's case, he had an estranged father in Kenya who died in 1982. Kamala's father is a tenured economy professor at Stanford (first black scholar granted tenure at Stanford too) and very much still alive at 85.
  Kind of hard to sow doubts about her birth, when her father is not only living in the US, but also as an authority figure.
  
  You are assuming that the birthers use logic. If that was the case, they would not have cared where Obama was born because his mother was an American born in Kansas. That would make him American even if he was born in Kenya or Canada (like Ted Cruz).
- i hope they do and kamala responds with the epstein flight logs with trump on em
- They’re planning on attacking birthright citizenship anyway, so it matters less. The angle is going to be that both of her parents were immigrants.
Basket of deplorables was such a perfect description
- This is what happens when our leaders are a decade plus over retirement age.
  People forget Bill and Obama were in their 40s, for some reason we just forgot we could run younger candidates
  Kamala really should be the upper age range we look at for first term presidents. If everything goes well they're signing up for an 8 year commitment.
- I can’t believe we’re not over all this trivial shit.
  Maybe one day Dr.King's dream will come true.
  I'm increasingly annoyed that it won't be during my lifetime, though.
  Hopefully my kids will live long enough to see it happen.
- Thin of those white kids screaming at the little black girls coming into their school (under military escort for safety) back in 1957, those white teens spitting on black teens doing soda fountain sit-ins in the 60s… and remember they’re adults now, with kids and even grandkids of their own.
  Do you really think they taught their families to be open-hearted and to respect people of color?
  This issue is getting better, but it’s got a long way to go yet. Things like this echo through time.
- The Republicans have run the same racist candidate for three elections in a row now, because they like these kinds of statements.
To the mixed race or non-white people in this thread, just start asking white people where they’re from. Heck, if someone asks you where you’re from, it’s only polite to return the curiosity
Edit: if they say US born and raised, then ask but where are your ancestors from?
- "Where are you from" should never mean ethnicity, but only where that person has lived. "What is your ancestry/ethnicity" should be specified if that's what you're asking about. No white person with an American accent would think anything of being asked where they're from and will respond with where they've lived.
  
  I know, I agree. I am speaking to the experience of people who get asked that question with a follow up of but where are you really from or some alternative. I mean, it’s totally innocuous and innocent question, but sometimes people use it in a weird way even if they don’t mean a bad thing by it. Because of our history of racism with each other (I mean humans), people are naturally sensitive about race. Things don’t exist in a vacuum
  This persons story: https://hbr.org/2020/10/whats-wrong-with-asking-where-are-you-from
  Four years ago, I moved to New York to start pursuing my journalism degree at a graduate program in the city. I spent my first week researching and reporting an audio story about the local farmer’s market. When I handed it in, my professor looked down at the script I had written, looked back up at me, and said, “Your English is good. Where are you from?”
  While that was supposed to be a compliment, it didn’t feel like a pat on the back. Whether it was based on how I looked, sounded, or information the professor had gathered about me beforehand, their tone implied that, because I was an international student, my ability to write English well (or not) was tied to my geographical and cultural background. I was confused and hurt.
- Out of curiosity, can you explain what effect you believe this might have?
  I am glad to be wrong, but I feel like most white people in the USA wouldn't be offended or even find that to be a strange question. They'll just answer it as best they can: Florida, Sacramento, born in Boise but raised in Fairfield. Or if you press about ancestry, most white folks will gladly say French-German, Irish, etc and then maybe even ask you the same thing because they're genuinely curious and because it's a natural way for an otherwise polite, as you put it, conversation to steer once the topic has come up. Probably most wouldn't even recognize if another person were asking that question specifically to make a point about racism/prejudice/etc.
  I really doubt that many white people have had these types of questions weaponized against them so unless they are made aware of how offensive it can be or how it betrays their own biases/prejudices (which we all have by the way), they may not even know. I would think that explaining how those questions impact you negatively in a supportive and understanding way will get you much further with most people than being retaliatory or intentionally inflammatory.
  
  For me, it’s not about offending but about invoking empathy in case the other person does it in a way to “other” someone. If someone’s question is innocent, then no harm done. You’re just having a chill conversation. If their question is not innocent, then maybe it might invoke empathy or also maybe annoy them
  
  I think this is a uniquely American experience tbh. In Canada people have no problem being asked their background and I'm sure the same could be said in other countries.
  To your point, race in America has been intentionally weaponized.
  
  Yeah if you want to make it sting you need to add an “oh” or some form of judgement to the answer. White American culture is proud of our history as immigrants, it’s just also racist and anti current or recent immigrants.
- Ok as a non-racist white dude but I grew up in a small town and will admit to ignorance. I don't get the problem here.
  I don't care where you're from I will ask your background it's more how you ask. I work with lots of people all over the world and I love learning about new cultures. If you're black maybe you're Nigerian or Kenyan. I don't fucking know the difference I just hear a weird accent so I get curious.
  Now the rub to me is how you ask and are you being sincere. Let's stop demonizing people for innocently asking "so where are you from?"
  For context I live in Toronto so very, very multicultural. I have friends from every background, but why hide wanting to expand your knowledge?
  I wonder if part of the American problem is the fact that they continue to not come to terms with the fact that they're racist AF?
  I'm genuinely curious.
  
  It's because the question gets weaponized or used as a micro-aggression. Because of a person's skin color they can't possibly be a "real" American, right? Usually, the person can tell by your tone of voice or phrasing when you ask the question whether you are just curious to learn more about them or if you're a racist dick. But either way, the question comes at them so often that they bristle when they hear it even when it is asked out of curiosity.
  
  You made the distinction that you ask when they have an accent. That's different to just assuming they must be from anywhere else because they're black.
  Imagine how that feels? Not the first or second time, but after the hundredth time...
  It's ignorant at least, racist at worst.
  
  Tbh, I am okay with people who ask it if they’re just curious and not trying to bring it up in a weird way to other you. People can tell from the context
- That will accomplish nothing. White people in the US love saying both where we are from and where we know/think our ancestors are from. It's a common question for white people to ask other white people. White people in the US are so proud to say they are Irish or German or "Italian on my mother's side!" It's like we crave to have something interesting about ourselves since the US is a bit generic, while also being fiercely proud of being from the US. Heck, it's also easy to find people who act proud of being 1/16th Native American... without realizing the reason you're 1/16th is because your great great grandfather stole your great great grandmother from her parents.
  
  That sounds great, I don’t mind people who are genuinely curious and just want to share.
Maybe he should look into her oranges before commenting.
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