Fact check: Trump’s claim that VP changed her identity

Claim: Donald Trump recently alleged that vice president Kamala Harris “happened to turn Black” some years ago. Here’s a fact check on his claim.

Donald Trump recently alleged that vice president Kamala Harris “happened to turn Black” some years ago, and that “all of a sudden, she made a turn” in her identity. However the former president’s claim is not true. Harris never switched from identifying as Indian-American to Black.

What did Donald Trump say?

At a gathering of Black journalists in Chicago, an interviewer asked Trump if he agreed with Republicans on Capitol Hill who refer to Harris as “DEI hire.” In response, Trump questioned Harris’ heritage.

“She was always of Indian heritage, and she was only promoting Indian heritage. 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. So I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?” the former president said at the National Association of Black Journalists convention.

“I respect either one, but she obviously doesn’t, because she was Indian all the way, and then all of a sudden she made a turn and she went – she became a Black person,” he said, adding, “I think somebody should look into that too.”

Harris later spoke at a gathering of the Sigma Gamma Rho sorority in Houston, where she described Trump’s comments as “the same old show, the divisiveness and the disrespect.” “Let me just say, the American people deserve better,” she added.

Fact-checking Donald Trump’s claim

Harris has long identified as both Black and Indian in an attempt to recognise both her parents’ heritage as part of her identity. In fact, her senate bio said that she is “the second African-American woman and first South Asian-American senator in history.”

In her 2019 memoir titled The Truths We Hold, Harris opened up about her mixed-race identity and upbringing. She described how she and her younger sister Maya “were raised with a strong awareness of and appreciation for Indian culture.” She said that her mom also “understood very well that she was raising two black daughters” and “was determined to make sure (they) would grow into confident, proud black women.”

Harris has always described her racial identity as Black, South Asian, Indian-American, African-American, and Jamaican-American – all of which stem from her parents’ identities.

Harris, the first Black woman and Asian-American on a major presidential ticket in the United States, is the daughter of late Shyamala Gopalan, who was Indian-American, and Donald Harris, who is Jamaican-American. Donald emigrated to the US from Jamaica in 1964. Most of Jamaica’s population comprise people who descended from enslaved Africans who were brought to work the island’s sugar estates by the British mostly during the 18th century. 90% of Jamaicans were of African origin as of 2012. Shyamala was Tamil Indian-American. She died in 2009.