'Happened to turn Black': Trump tried to erase Harris' identity at NABJ. It's disgraceful.
Instead of taking the opportunity to prove the naysayers wrong, Trump – as others have noted – showed the world what he really thinks of Black people – Black women in particular. He is repulsed by us.
Amelia RobinsonCHICAGO — Like her policies or not, there are two things we've known for years about Kamala Harris: She is the nation's first female vice president, and she is both Black and Indian.
In one of the grossest moments in recent political history, Donald Trump, the Republican Party's nominee for president of the United States, attempted to strip Harris of the birthright given to her by her Jamaican father and experience of life as a biracial woman in America.
"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," the former president said of Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, at the National Association of Black Journalists conference in Chicago on Wednesday.
Trump also claimed to not know anything about Sonya Massey's alleged murder at the hands of an Illinois sheriff's deputy, before relying vague details about the horrific case.
The attack on Harris' identity was disturbing enough. That he uttered those disgraceful words while on stage with three Black women — Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner, ABC News reporter Rachel Scott and Semafor reporter Kadia Goba — in a room of Black women and men, most, like Harris, with a complex heritage that comes with this hemisphere's history of slavery, is even more reprehensible.
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Trump's appearance at NABJ was controversial from the word go.
His unpresidential ugliness toward Black female reporters — theGrio Washington Bureau Chief April Ryan and NBC News Washington Correspondent Yamiche Alcindor included — were a few of the reasons some convention goers did not want Trump there.
Scott bore the brunt of Trump's ruthlessness when she sought to address "the elephant in the room" by asking a legitimate question about his past racist remarks, nastiness toward certain Black journalists and his pushing a false narrative about the citizenship of former U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley, former President Barack Obama and other political rivals.
“Well first of all, I don’t think I’ve ever been asked a question in such a horrible manner,” Trump said, characterizing her question as "disgraceful" and "rude."
Trump's behavior has been the talk of the conference.
Instead of taking the opportunity to prove the naysayers wrong, Trump — as others have noted — showed the world what he really thinks of Black people ― Black women in particular. He is repulsed by us.
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That the former president could in one moment praise his running mate, U.S. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, for receiving a law degree from Yale University, and the next babble nearly incoherently about whether Harris, a graduate of Howard University, a historically Black university, and University of California College of the Law, ever really earned her law degree is a slap in the face to all women — especially Black women.
NABJ has a long history of welcoming presidential candidates
Despite my many concerns about Trump, I was among the many NABJ members who wanted him to participate in the convention. NABJ, the nation's largest organization of minority journalists, has a long tradition of inviting presidents and presidential candidates to its annual conference. Black journalists are as capable as any other journalists, and want to hear from leaders.
The Black journalists I know are not the enemy of the people, and have their "Black jobs" because they are experts at them, and not due to any DEI program.
Harris was invited and, according to NABJ, is likely to address the organization's members via Zoom in September.
Former presidents George W. Bush, Obama, and Bill Clinton have attended NABJ conventions.
Trump could have attacked Harris' policies and performance. That is how politics should work.
To attack her heritage is a cut that leaves a scar below the belt.
Harris, a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha — this nation's oldest established Greek-letter organization for Black women — was the United States' second Black female U.S. senator.
Democrat Nancy Pelosi was a thorn in the side of former President George W. Bush. But when she became the nation's first female speaker of the House, the Republican celebrated the milestone as the "distinct honor" of saying "madame speaker."
Trump did the polar opposite with his comments at the NABJ conference. He sought to erase Harris' heritage as the nation's first Black female vice president, and with it the progress and potential of Black women.
Amelia Robinson is The Columbus Dispatch's opinion and community engagement editor. Submit a letter to the editor at freep.com/letters, and we may publish it online and in print.