It has come as no surprise to Sonia Smith Kang that Kamala Harris’s ethnicity has been challenged by her opponents and other members of the Republican Party. “It’s what mixed people have been dealing with for a long time,” said Smith Kang, who is both Mexican and black and married to a Korean man.
Since Donald Trump attacked Kamala Harris’ racial identity last month at the National Association of Black Journalists’ convention, he has deliberately mispronounced her name, posted a photo of her in a traditional Indian sari, and hired supporters to claim the Democratic presidential nominee is not black . Mixed voters who heard Trump say that Harris “happened to turn black” immediately stirred up feelings of anger, frustration and irritation.
Related: The evolution of Kamala Harris: from closeted activist to presidential candidate
“Everyone thinks we’re living in this post-racial era, but Trump showed why classes and courses still need to be taught,” Kang said.
When the landmark case Loving v Virginia overturned state laws restricting interracial marriage in the US in 1967, only 3% of marriages were interracial. By 2019, the number increased to 11 percent. Today, about one in ten Americans—33.8 million people—identify as mixed race.
The rapid rise of multiracial people may not only affect the 2024 election, but it could change US electoral politics because mixed-race people tend to be young and the country’s white population is aging. The Guardian spoke to scores of biracial and multiracial Americans who see their own story in Harris and believe his mixed heritage gives him a political advantage.
Smith Kang, founder of multicultural children’s clothing line Mixed Up Clothing and vice president of the nonprofit advocacy group Multiracial Americans of Southern California, will hold a national call later this month to encourage the interracial community to support Harris. “We’re really excited to mobilize and show up for him,” said the San Fernando Valley resident.
After Barack Obama, Harris is the second major political party presidential candidate ever to identify as biracial or mixed race. The daughter of an Indian mother and Jamaican father, Harris has long embraced her South Asian and black ethnic background. As his popularity has risen in recent weeks, the topic of multiracial identity has come into the spotlight.
“I had to reread Trump’s quotes, and the first things I felt were shock and Kamala Harris’s anger and defensiveness,” said Charlee Thompson, a Seattle resident who works on clean energy and climate policy. “The fact that a mixed identity is in the mainstream media on this political stage is shocking to me.”
Thompson, who has a Japanese mother from Hawaii and a Mexican and white father, said multiracial people like her and Harris were still treated as different or exotic even in 2024. “Last month I asked three different people in completely different situations. me or guess what I was,” she said. “I think it’s important to highlight the fact that multiracial people exist and people can be treated differently or make people feel like they don’t belong in the community they belong to.”
Dr. Jenn Noble, a psychologist and educator who coaches parents of interracial children, believes something worse than ignorance is going on as Trump questions Harris’ identity. “He’s doing something that a lot of people accuse interracial people of, which is cheating or playing their background in a way that benefits them or suits them when it suits them,” he said.
Los Angeles-based Noble, who is of black and Sri Lankan heritage, said research shows there are advantages to being mixed-race, such as cognitive flexibility that allows people exposed to multiple languages or cultures to switch easily between groups, which could benefit the vice president during his run. “I think Harris would have quite a few skills to see the needs of different groups and respond to them in a way that works for that group,” he said.
After Trump received widespread criticism for his remarks about Harris, Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance defended the former president’s comments, saying Harris was a “basically a fake person” and “chameleon-like.” Vance has biracial children with his Indian American wife Usha. (Vance recently told CNN that he believes Harris is “whatever he says he is.”)
Academics and mental health professionals have said they are concerned about the impact of Trump’s comments because “identity denial” — telling someone they are not who they really are — is a common stressor for mixed-race Americans. Historically, the one-drop rule in the United States claimed that anyone with a black ancestor was considered black, and even today multiracial people are often referred to as fractions rather than using words like “both” or “and”.
Related: “Could We Have Imagined This Moment Coming?”: Kamala Harris and the Rise of Native American Politicians
The 2020 US Census made it easier to identify multiracial people, leading to population growth and a more accurate picture of a racially diverse country. According to a recent New York Times analysis, the number of Americans who identify as both black and Asian has tripled in the past 15 years to more than 600,000 — and about 20% of them live in Harris’ home state of California.
For David Chetlain of Newberg, Oregon, who was born to a white American mother and a black father from Ghana and was adopted by a Native American mother and a white father, Trump’s recent remarks made him recall times when strangers questioned his own appearance. comments like, “Where did you come from?” and asked his mother, “Did the milkman visit you?”
“When people do that, it demeans you or puts you in a box,” said Chetlain, a Navy veteran who works in software sales. “People try to make you feel less American.” What Chetlain has learned so far about Harris and her late mother, a breast cancer researcher, and father, a prominent economist, has impressed her.
“They are the American dream,” said Chetlain of Harris and his immigrant parents. “It’s a true meritocracy. No one gave [Harris] $400 million to start a career of fraud and tax evasion.
