‘Black Hillary’ Kamala Harris’s Self-Initiated Label

“This week, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden announced that Sen. Kamala Harris would be his running mate. News outlets heralded the historic nature of her vice presidential nomination, highlighting that she was the first Black woman and the first Asian American woman to achieve this milestone. (Vox, Aug. 14, 2020)

“For some people, that last part was news: Wait, Harris is Asian American? It prompted much discussion on social and traditional media about Harris’s background and biracial identity as the daughter of an Indian immigrant mother and a Jamaican immigrant father.”

“The Miami Herald published an article on Sunday defending Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., from comparisons to Hillary Clinton, after the hashtag #BlackHillary began trending on social media.  (Fox News, Oct. 11, 20)

“The story cited tweets from former TV anchor Megyn Kelly and actor James Woods which criticized Harris for making faces during the debate against Vice President Mike Pence, with Woods referring to her as a "Valley Girl," who rolled "her eyes like a petulant brat.”

Grimacing, grinning and giggling seem to be the signature of power-giddy Kamala Harris.

Not only Woods but millions of viewers saw the three Gs associated with her at the vice presidential debate.

“The article then cited Ohio Pastor Darrell C. Scott and comments he made about Harris while speaking with Fox News' Laura Ingraham. He referred to the California Democrat as, “Hillary Clinton in blackface," and the #BlackHillary hashtag began to spread. (Fox) 

“The Herald did, however, also point to how unpopular Harris is with voters -- a trait she seems to share with Clinton, who had a high unfavorability rating in 2016.

"Clinton was widely disliked," the story continued. "Network exit polls showed that 55 percent of voters had an unfavorable opinion of her. Harris faces similar challenges." 

“The piece also cited pollster Frank Luntz who'd told Fox News, “this was Mike Pence’s night" and “the complaint about Kamala Harris was that she was abrasive and condescending.”

“Luntz said the "smiling, the smirking, the scowling” seemed to irritate voters.

“This news comes just one day after Harris, who is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Judge Amy Coney Barrett's Catholic faith should not be scrutinized during her upcoming confirmation hearings. 

“Despite this, Harris signed a letter on Sunday -- along with the rest of the Judiciary Committee -- addressed to the Assistant Attorney General, criticizing Barrett's pro-life ties and demanding she provide a 2006 abortion ad that she signed as a faculty member at the University of Notre Dame.

“The start of Barrett's confirmation process begins Monday and will likely be one of the most bitter, partisan battles for a Supreme Court seat in the country's recent memory.

“…Harris has had a long career in public life: She was a San Francisco district attorney, the California attorney general, is currently a US senator, and ran for the Democratic nomination for president last year. And yet for years, she has primarily been identified as a Black woman in the public eye, with her South Asian identity rarely mentioned in media coverage until fairly recently. Some of this could be a personal choice, too — a longtime friend of Harris told the Washington Post in 2019 that he had only learned that she was also of South Asian descent after knowing her for 15 years.” (Vox)

Like most Democrats, Harris self-created who she is, landing kerplunk as a biracial woman who arrived just in time for the 2020 presidential race as a Black.

That makes Kamala Harris her own Fake News, so to speak.

Meanwhile, watch for her to be one of the most caustic critics during the Amy Coney Barrett hearings now underway.

As for her signing a Judiciary Committee letter calling on Barrett to provide a 2006 abortion ad that she signed as a faculty member at the University of Notre Dame, shortly after proclaiming the judge’s Catholic faith should not be scrutinized during her upcoming confirmation hearings, to borrowing from a slightly altered Joe Biden line: C’mon Ma’am