{"id":59967,"date":"2020-07-17T15:56:43","date_gmt":"2020-07-17T15:56:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=59967"},"modified":"2020-07-17T15:57:49","modified_gmt":"2020-07-17T15:57:49","slug":"why-kamala-harris-afro-asian-identity-matters-opinion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=59967","title":{"rendered":"Why Kamala Harris’ Afro-Asian Identity Matters | Opinion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why Kamala Harris’ Afro-Asian Identity Matters | Opinion<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Newsweek<\/a>
\n2020-07-09<\/p>\n

Oneka Labennett<\/strong><\/a>, Associate Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity
\nUniversity of Southern California<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Front-runner<\/a>. Black woman. Afro-Asian? A favorite<\/a> to become Joe Biden’s<\/a> running mate, Kamala Harris<\/a> is in the homestretch of the most consequential veepstakes of our lifetime. With cries for racial justice and police reform gripping the nation, we know Harris’ Blackness matters to a Democratic ticket led by a white male septuagenarian<\/a>\u2014but so does her Asian identity.<\/p>\n

As the daughter of immigrants from India<\/a> and Jamaica<\/a>, Harris’ Afro-Asian heritage puts her at the crux of the coronavirus crisis. Just as the pandemic has cast a stark light on the lethality of systemic anti-Black racism in the United States, it has also exposed discrimination and xenophobia against Asian communities and other immigrants. Still, a Black cop<\/a> and an Asian cop<\/a> are among the officers charged with aiding and abetting George Floyd’s murder<\/a>. Speaking to Black and Asian constituencies now would be a powerful acknowledgment that could further galvanize political coalition building while tending to the wounds of division.<\/p>\n

Of course, the senator’s Afro-Asian heritage is muted in part because of the American one-drop rule<\/a>\u2014“a drop of Black blood”<\/a> makes an individual Black. In her book The Truths We Hold<\/em>, Harris recounts that her mother understood that America<\/a> would view her daughters as Black, so she raised them as such<\/a>…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With cries for racial justice and police reform gripping the nation, we know Harris’ Blackness matters to a Democratic ticket led by a white male septuagenarian\u2014but so does her Asian identity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,16,8,26,20,25],"tags":[13439,28895,19040,28247,19041,2459,31034],"class_list":["post-59967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-asia","category-media-archive","category-politics","category-usa","category-women","tag-joe-biden","tag-joseph-biden","tag-kamala-d-harris","tag-kamala-devi-harris","tag-kamala-harris","tag-newsweek","tag-oneka-labennett"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=59967"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59967\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59970,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59967\/revisions\/59970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=59967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=59967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=59967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}