Is Kamala Harris Black? | My Response to Candace Owens

CREDITS:
Chart & Narration by Matt Baker
Animation by Syawish Rehman

[MichaelSidneyTimpson]

Also Barack Obama, white mother, african father, still considered Black,

[EldestMillennial]

I really can't believe we have to have this conversation, but thank you for having it.

[blazer]

She's a multi ethnic American. End of story

[TheUnknownWorld]

Kamala Harris is not a Black-American she's a Caribbean-American. She doesn't have roots that date back to the emancipation proclamation. She's Jamaican there's a big difference, her family never went through Reconstruction, The Jim Crow Era, or the Civil Rights movement. She's cosplaying a Black-American... What Black person washes their greens in the bathtub.... That told me everything I needed to know about her "Blackness".... This is coming from a Black-American who can trace their roots back to 1793 here in the United States.

[daffyrose]

I saw a story on Kamala’s parents. They were first acquainted at Berkeley’s Black Student Union. The Union decided to vote on whether to let Kamala’s mom In because she wasn’t of African descent. But they didn’t need to vote on Donald Harris. I think that’s quite telling. I would think they would know.

[SpacemanXC]

As someone who is mixed race, i gotta say its really weird. My mom is from Korea and my dad is from Ireland. But its hard for me to identify as anything other than being from California. Im not Irish. And not Korean. Im just an asian-ish looking guy. White people think im Polynesian and Mexicans think im chinese.

Its wierd.

[dra.latina]

For someone who is racially ambiguous, this conversation is hackneyed. I’m a mish-mash, and relish in my multi-ethnic heritage. I’ve found that the world projects their biases onto me when I meet people. “What are you?” “You mixed?” “I know you’re trying to pass!”
Are you kidding me?!
I am ME, and I get to decide which aspects of my heritage I choose to identify with and celebrate.

Around age 30 I decided to respond to queries about my race/ethnicity with “I’m whatever you feel comfortable believing…”

[angelfigueroa]

When the family tree guy needs to weigh in to fight disinformation, you know things have gotten out of hand.

[kevinpond]

The big news to me is that there is actually no record of the marriage between Oscar Harris and Beryl Finnegan as revealed around the 3:30 mark nor is there a birth certificate for Donald Harris revealing them as his parents apparently. So we are left taking Donald Harris's word for his heritage. The birthdates of all the members of this family tree seem plausible but there will always be room for doubt without those birth and marriage certificates. People who don't like Kamala can latch onto that doubt and there is nothing in this video to erase that doubt.
If you like Kamala's policies, vote for her for that reason. If you don't like her policies, don't vote for her.

[therealking]

Can we talk about the irony of Kamala's father being named Donald?!?

[mohsen]

Christiana Brown was a washer. A washer in her own words. She and Beryl were her family’s servants.

[nezuminora]

I don't know if it's the same in African American culture, but in Maori culture, if you have even one Maori ancestor, you are Maori. End of. The percentages and fractions people use to describe heritage are a hangover from colonialism and therefore can be considered pretty offensive to indigenous people.

[JoeyBonzo]

I think the sad part of this conversation is that this is not exclusive to KH, but rather a sad reality that many mixed children have to go to. Proving that they're "black" enough or "white" enough for members of their family, friends, public.

[bobcharlie]

Growing up as a multi- ethnic kid. I had a lot of my blackness, or non-blackness thrown in my face. Lots of people try to define my blackness for me. Some claimed I didn't act black enough, I don't speak black (whatever that is) Or I was black and trying to "pass' or only considered me black when it was convent for them to do so. There is a lot of colorism and hangovers from the '1 drop-rule' that was prevalent in the days of Jim Crow. It's something that many people of mixed- race in America has to put up with and it's stupid. It's all about control.

[jay]

Thank you for making the distinction that race is a social construct. This points out how people use racialization to try to support their narrative, referring to people as "black" when they want to marginalize them, and then arguing someone isn't "black" when trying to de-legitimize their connection to that same marginalized group.

[owenh.]

Candace couldn't find a marriage certificate between Beryl and Kamala's paternal grandfather, Oscar. Candace spoke to a half-brother of Kamala's dad and he said he never heard of Beryl who is supposed to be Kamala's paternal grandmother. This half-brother said he has never known the identity of the mother of Kamala's dad. Just based on the photos, I would find it unusual that Kamala's very light looking and relatively privileged grandfather Oscar chose to marry a very dark skinned woman in the unenlightened 1940s.

[acetadmusic]

i simply find it disheartening that for some, a persons race is a serious consideration for the presidency

[matthewmay]

No one ever accused Barack Obama of being too Irish.

[anxietystrings]

This is just "Obama's not an american" 2.0

[nancycole-auguste]

It doesn't matter the color of our skin or our origins, It is THE CONTENT OF OUR CHARACTER!!! WHAT HAPPENED TO EVERYBODY??