A group of mixed-race voters dug into how their identities shape the way they vote, making for some very interesting moments.
(Video Credit: MSNBC)
The group was comprised of two Democrats, two Independents and two Republicans, one of whom is Addul Ali, a GOP congressional candidate. They are all mixed-race North Carolina voters and were brought together to discuss how their unique identities play a role in how they view presidential candidates.
One member, a Democrat, said she didn’t plan to vote for “someone who does not support people who look like me.”
The other Democrat chimed in, adding: “I don’t think he sees me as who I am,” meaning former President Donald Trump.
When asked what the rest of the group thought, Ali took the moment to question Vice President Kamala Harris’s “black experience.”
“I just don’t think that Kamala Harris has anything vested in the air-finger, quote, black or Hispanic experience in so much as it would be identified by anybody that lives in those communities.”
“You’re saying you don’t think she could help black or brown people?” host Morgan Radford asked.
“No. I mean, going to Howard don’t make you black,” Ali shrugged.
The conversation then turned to Trump’s interview at the National Association of Black Journalists.
“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 at the time. “So I don’t know, is she Indian or is she black?”
“What did you think when you heard those comments?” Radford asked the group.
One of the Independent voters found them “offensive.”
“Highly offensive. I mean, I think probably every multiracial, mixed race, biracial person has had the experience of someone else telling them that they are not something enough,” she explained. “I think it’s kind of triggering. Right?”
The second Independent voter agreed.
“I think it is impossible to be bi-racial in America, and I think that it requires that you’re covering all bases at all times,” he said. “And it requires constant recognition of both identities. And I think when Donald Trump says stuff like that about Kamala Harris and implies that she’s like picking a race for political advantage, it’s tapping into an incredibly familiar sentiment. You know, I think everyone on this panel can understand.”
Radford focused on the Republicans, asking them how the comments made them feel.
The second Republican admitted that it probably wasn’t a “well thought out” comment, but believed it was more a jab at identity politics as a device, rather than any particular identity or person.
“Well, my first thought was ‘That wasn’t very well thought out.’ At the same time, though, when I heard it, I didn’t hear it as an attack on blacks or Indians,” she claimed. “I heard it more so of him commenting towards identity politics and the appeal that some take to play up one side of their race over the other.”
“I agree with him,” Ali said. “I didn’t know that. I didn’t know she identified as black because everything I saw was first South Asian, first Indian. There’s none of that identified as black.”
“Regardless of her parents. I mean, she was born in this country, and she identifies as a black person in this country in an American way. In a uniquely American context,” Radford responded.
“I never heard her identify herself as a black woman,” the Republican candidate quipped.
“She said multiple times, she’s a black woman,” the host said.
“I’ve never heard it,” Ali maintained.
The female Republican voter said she’s not on the same “brand of woman” as Harris and is on a different “trajectory.”
“We’ve got three major international crises going on … As a woman, I want to see you do more than appeal to giggling and having a girl moment on stage.”
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
Sierra Marlee is a millennial whose hunger for the truth in a world of fake news has led her to write. Marlee also contributes to BizPac Review.
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