Washington- The heated race for the White House has returned to the fray. In his bid to regain voters’ trust, Donald Trump has attacked his Democratic rival Kamala Harris over her ethnic background, accusing her of playing around with her Indian heritage.
Trump, who has long been accused of stoking racial tensions in the country and failing to condemn claims of white supremacy, questioned whether Harris was actually “black” during a meeting with the National Association of Black Journalists in Chicago on Wednesday, quipping, “I didn't know she was black until a few years ago when she happened to be black.”
“I respect both groups, but it is clear that she does not do that, because she was Indian the whole time and then suddenly she turned around and became black,” he continued, which sparked a wave of resentment among journalists and the audience who attended the meeting.
Media “exaggeration”
Trump's campaign is facing fierce criticism due to his statements that some have described as “racist” towards blacks and minorities, considering Kamala Harris the first woman of African origin to run semi-officially for the presidency, and is described as the female version of former US President Barack Obama.
Harris, who is of Jamaican and Indian descent and identifies as “black” and Asian, commented on Trump’s remarks at the Sigma Gamma Rho conference, one of the most important black women’s organizations in America, saying that he “offered the same old show of division and disrespect.” She added, “The American people deserve better. They deserve a leader who speaks the truth. A leader who does not respond with hostility and anger when confronted with facts.”
Speaking to Al Jazeera Net, Massad Boulos, the former president’s son-in-law and his campaign coordinator in Michigan, described the “liberal” media’s reaction to Trump’s statements as “exaggerated.” He said, “President Trump did nothing more than state the truth: that Harris was very proud of her Indian heritage when it suited her, and recently switched to her African heritage because it suited her presidential campaign more.”
Paul also asserted that Trump’s comments were about his opponent’s “blunders on most issues, including her racial background, and were not, in his view, directed at any particular ethnic group.” He added that “Trump’s popularity among minorities is growing, especially in the Latino and black communities, as these groups share similar conservative values and appreciate Trump’s policies on them.”
For his part, J.B. Pritzker, the Democratic governor of Illinois, attacked Trump in a statement to CNN, and considered that the Republican presidential candidate confirmed his “racism” with his statements once again. He said, “When I was a candidate for governor in 2017, I constantly described him as a racist because he is, and today he proved it again.”
Fears
Trump's statements come amid growing fears of “stoking division” among Americans, political violence that has returned to the forefront after the recent assassination attempt, and the consequences that could result from attempts to influence presidential election campaigns.
This is not the first time Trump has stirred controversy by attacking his political rivals on the basis of race. In 2016, his campaign supported allegations that Barack Obama's birth certificate was “forged”, accusing him of falsifying a basic requirement for assuming the presidency in America, before backtracking and acknowledging that he was born in Hawaii.
Just months before losing the 2020 election to Joe Biden, Trump angered many after the killing of American citizen George Floyd, due to his threat to fire on the National Guard forces on the vandals in the protests that erupted at the time against police violence in the state of Minnesota.
One of the situations that raises a question about Trump's historical relationship with black Americans is when, in 1989, five boys – four of whom were of African descent – aged between 13 and 16 years old, were arrested and accused of raping and assaulting a girl in New York's famous Central Park.
At that time, Donald Trump led a massive media campaign to demand the return of the death penalty. He did not wait for the start of the trial, which was marked by judicial loopholes, to describe the defendants as “criminals and murderers.” He also did not offer an explicit apology after they were acquitted in a case that shook American public opinion and became a work of art.
Analysts believe that Trump must double his efforts to defeat Harris in attracting minorities who play a crucial role in swing states, especially since she has the support of influential organizations such as the historic Alpha Kappa Alpha fraternity for black women, which she joined while studying at Howard University.