‘Black and proud’: Kamala Harris has never shied away from racial identity

‘Black and proud’: Kamala Harris has never shied away from racial identity
Vice President Kamala Harris, left, is greeted by Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis, right, during her arrival at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, onJuly 31, 2024. (AP)
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Updated 04 August 2024
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‘Black and proud’: Kamala Harris has never shied away from racial identity

‘Black and proud’: Kamala Harris has never shied away from racial identity
  • Kamala's mother, who emigrated from India to pursue a doctorate in nutrition and endocrinology, raised her with emphasis on both her India and Black heritage
  • As a child, she was bused to a newly desegregated elementary school in a wealthier white neighborhood and attended a Black church on Sundays

WASHINGTON: Former president Donald Trump, who has a long history of making incendiary comments about race, has stepped up his attacks on his 2024 White House rival Kamala Harris by claiming she “happened to turn Black” for political advantage.
But the reality is that the vice president, the product of a mixed race marriage between Jamaican and Indian immigrants, embraced her Blackness long before embarking on a career in public service.

Harris was born in Oakland, California, in 1964, to Afro-Jamaican Donald Harris, who came to the United States to study economics, and Shyamala Gopalan, who emigrated from India at 19 to pursue her doctorate in nutrition and endocrinology.
They met at the University of California, Berkeley, a hub of student activism, while participating in the civil rights movement — and sometimes even taking a toddler Kamala along to marches.
Donald Harris remains a professor emeritus at Stanford University, while Gopalan, who helped advance breast cancer research, passed away in 2009.
After the couple divorced, Gopalan raised Kamala and her younger sister Maya, instilling pride in their South Asian roots. She took them on trips to India and often expressed affection or frustration in Tamil, Kamala wrote in her 2019 book, “The Truths We Hold.”
But Gopalan also understood she was raising two Black daughters.
“She knew that her adopted homeland would see Maya and me as Black girls, and she was determined to ensure we grew into confident, proud Black women,” Harris wrote.
As a child, Harris was bused to a newly desegregated elementary school in a wealthier white neighborhood and attended a Black church on Sundays.
“I’m Black, and I’m proud of being Black, and I was born Black, I will die Black,” Harris told The Breakfast Club radio show in 2019.
But she’s continued to lean into her Indian heritage too, appearing in a 2019 video where she and actress Mindy Kaling, also of Indian descent, bonded over making dosas.
“She’s embraced her Blackness and her Indian heritage as well,” said Kerry Haynie, chair of political science at Duke University, adding that Trump’s “race-baiting” attacks were aimed at galvanizing his own base.

When it came time for college, Harris chose Howard University, a historically Black institution in the US capital, following in the footsteps of her hero Thurgood Marshall, the first Black justice on the US Supreme Court.
She attended protests against apartheid in South Africa and joined the storied Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, founded to support Black women. Today, its 360,000 members include leading figures in politics, the arts, science and more.
“It’s a powerful signal of alignment with Black Americans,” said Christopher Clark, a professor of political science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
After Howard, Harris enrolled at UC Hastings College of the Law, where she was elected president of the Black Law Students Association.
As she progressed through her career — elected San Francisco district attorney in 2003 and California’s attorney general in 2010 — she was consistently identified as Black or African American in media reports.
Some went so far as to dub her the “female Obama” after Barack Obama, who was elected the nation’s first Black president in 2008.
Their biographies have parallels: both are biracial, with Obama’s father a Kenyan economist and his mother a white American.
Critics questioned the authenticity of his African American experience, and Trump may be using a similar tactic to try to discredit Harris, suggested Clark.
However, being Black in America has always been a “very broad umbrella” due to the legacy of slavery, wrote Teresa Wiltz in a Politico op-ed, encompassing “myriad iterations of skin color and hair texture and life experiences.”
The most important Black political figures in US history have often been of mixed race, from abolitionist Frederick Douglass to activist-philosopher Angela Davis, Wiltz noted.
If Harris identifies as Black, “we can — and should — take her word for it,” she said.


Hundreds rally in Paris for Iranian women’s rights

Hundreds rally in Paris for Iranian women’s rights
Updated 11 sec ago
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Hundreds rally in Paris for Iranian women’s rights

Hundreds rally in Paris for Iranian women’s rights
  • The march in solidarity with the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement was attended by Benjamin Briere and Louis Arnaud, two Frenchmen who were arrested and arbitrarily detained in Iran

PARIS: Hundreds of people marched through Paris on Sunday in support of women’s rights and the opposition in Iran, two years after the death of Mahsa Amini sparked protests against the country’s religious authorities.
A 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, Amini died in custody after being arrested for allegedly violating the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code for women.
The march, organized by around 20 human rights associations, took place as 34 women began a hunger strike in a Tehran prison to mark the two-year anniversary of her death.
Chirinne Ardakani, a Franco-Iranian lawyer and member of the “Iran Justice” collective, said that the “sacrifices” made by Iranians opposed to the regime were “not in vain.”
“Everything has changed in Iran,” Ardakani told AFP.
“We’ve gone from an absolutely patriarchal culture, where there was no question of women being able to reveal themselves in the street, to massive support for these women,” the lawyer and activist added.
The march in solidarity with the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement was attended by Benjamin Briere and Louis Arnaud, two Frenchmen who were arrested and arbitrarily detained in Iran.
Iran is accused of arresting Westerners without cause and using them as bargaining chips in state-to-state negotiations, with French diplomats describing these prisoners as “state hostages.”
Briere was eventually released in May 2023, while Arnaud was let go the month after.
“Yes, I was in prison, but it is an immense honor to have been able to live among you, freedom fighters, who shared my suffering,” Arnaud told the crowd, in his first public address since his release.
Three other French nationals are still being held in Iran.
After Amini died in custody on September 16, 2022, the women-led protests which erupted rattled Iran’s leadership that autumn and winter.
But the demonstrations were then crushed by the authorities, with rights group Amnesty International saying security forces used assault rifles and shotguns in the crackdown.
Human rights groups say at least 551 people were killed. Thousands more were arrested, according to the United Nations.

 


Russian bomb strikes Kharkiv apartment building, 41 injured, official says

Firefighters tackle a blaze after a Russian aerial bomb struck a multi-story residential building in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday.
Firefighters tackle a blaze after a Russian aerial bomb struck a multi-story residential building in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday.
Updated 15 September 2024
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Russian bomb strikes Kharkiv apartment building, 41 injured, official says

Firefighters tackle a blaze after a Russian aerial bomb struck a multi-story residential building in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday.
  • Zelensky said 3 other guided bombs had struck villages in Kharkiv region, where population centers have been a frequent target of Russian attacks near Russian border

KYIV: A Russian-guided bomb struck a multi-story apartment building on Sunday in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, triggering a fire and injuring at least 41 people, the region’s governor said.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said the latest attack underscored the need for Ukraine’s Western partners to provide weapons and air defense systems and permission to use weaponry on targets deep inside Russia to save lives.
Oleh Syniehubov, governor of Kharkiv region in northeastern Ukraine, said on Telegram that rescue operations were proceeding, with 12 people in hospital, three in serious condition. He said residents could be trapped under rubble.
Syniehubov posted photos of heavy damage to the top four of five storys of the building, with smoke and fire billowing out of blown-out windows.
Zelensky, in his nightly video address, said three other guided bombs had struck villages in Kharkiv region, where population centers have been a frequent target of Russian attacks near the Russian border.
Russia did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the apartment building but has denied intentionally targeting civilians despite having killed thousands of them since it invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Zelensky called for rapid decisions on long-range strikes “in order to destroy Russian military aviation right where it is based. These are obvious, logical decisions.
“Every Russian strike of this nature, every instance of Russian terror, like today in Kharkiv...this proves that there must be long-range capability and it must be sufficient.”
He said appropriate decisions were expected in the first instance from the United States, France, Germany and Italy, “those whose decisiveness can help save lives.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week that the West would be directly fighting with Russia if it allowed Ukraine to strike Russian territory with Western-made long-range missiles.


Trump safe after multiple shots fired near his Florida golf course

Trump safe after multiple shots fired near his Florida golf course
Updated 15 September 2024
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Trump safe after multiple shots fired near his Florida golf course

Trump safe after multiple shots fired near his Florida golf course
  • Trump was injured in an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania on July 13

WEST PALM BEACH, Florida: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was safe after multiple shots were fired near his golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sunday, according to two sources briefed on the incident.
The shots originated outside the fence line of the course, the sources said. Trump’s campaign had earlier said he was safe following gunshots in his vicinity but gave no details.
The Secret Service said it was investigating the incident, which occurred shortly before 2 p.m. (1800 GMT).
Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., cited local law enforcement as saying an AK-47 automatic weapon had been discovered in bushes and a suspect has been apprehended, according to a post on X.
 

Reuters was not immediately able to confirm his account.
Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump was injured in an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania on July 13, just months ahead of what looks likely to be highly contested Nov. 5 election in which he will be pitted against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.
The first shooting of a US president or major party presidential candidate in more than four decades was a glaring security lapse that forced Kimberly Cheatle to resign as Secret Service director under bipartisan congressional pressure.
Trump was grazed in the right ear and one rallygoer was killed in the gunfire. The gunman, identified as a 20-year-old Thomas Crooks, was shot and killed by a Secret Service sniper.
The White House said in a statement that President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris had been briefed about the incident and were “relieved to know that he is safe. They will be kept regularly updated by their team.


Vance defends pet-eating story, a claim Democrats call ‘dangerous’

Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance.
Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance.
Updated 15 September 2024
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Vance defends pet-eating story, a claim Democrats call ‘dangerous’

Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance.
  • Trump amplified the claim during his debate Tuesday with Democrat Kamala Harris, provoking widespread mockery at home and abroad

WASHINGTON: The Republican vice presidential nominee defended Sunday his claim that immigrants are eating people’s pet animals in an Ohio town, a claim multiple officials say is “dangerous” and unfounded.
Donald Trump’s running mate JD Vance had made the surprising claim earlier this month — saying Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio — were eating people’s pet cats and dogs. Vance is a US senator who represents Ohio.
Trump amplified the claim during his debate Tuesday with Democrat Kamala Harris, provoking widespread mockery at home and abroad — but also prompting a series of threats that forced some Springfield schools and hospitals to close.
“My constituents are telling me firsthand that they’re seeing these things,” an unapologetic Vance said on CNN.
Vance denied any responsibility for the recent spate of threats against Springfield, blaming them on “psychopaths” and “losers.”
Springfield’s mayor, a local sheriff and the state’s Republican governor have said they have no evidence to back up Vance’s claims.
“These discussions about Haitians eating dogs and cats and other things need to stop,” Governor Mike DeWine said on ABC.
“What we know is that the Haitians who are in Springfield are legal. They came to Springfield to work (and)...they are very good workers.”
Thousands of Haitians have settled in Springfield in recent years, most of them under a federal program granting them temporary protected status.
Governor Josh Shapiro of the neighboring state of Pennsylvania, a Democrat once touted as a possible Harris running mate, on Sunday accused Vance of recklessly fanning the flames of rumor.
“When they go out and they lie about this stuff, they put their fellow Americans at risk,” he told CNN interviewer Dana Bash. “JD Vance should be ashamed of himself. ... This is dangerous stuff.”
Vance denied his remarks had any connection to the threats against Springfield.
“The violence is disgusting,” he said. “We condemn it.” But he repeatedly blamed the problems in places like Springfield on the border policies of the Biden-Harris administration.
Trump, like Vance, has doubled down on his attacks on migrants.
Campaigning Friday in California, Trump vowed there would be “large deportations” from Springfield if elected. He has promised to deport millions of undocumented migrants nationwide.
Harris, meantime, appeared Friday in Shapiro’s state of Pennsylvania, perhaps the most crucial of the swing states expected to decide the November election.
“I offer a new generation of leadership,” said the 59-year-old Democrat, underlining the contrast to Trump, who is 78.


Released Indian opposition leader Kejriwal to resign as Delhi chief minister

Arvind Kejriwal, Chief Minister of Delhi, greets his supporters after Supreme Court granted him bail in New Delhi.
Arvind Kejriwal, Chief Minister of Delhi, greets his supporters after Supreme Court granted him bail in New Delhi.
Updated 15 September 2024
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Released Indian opposition leader Kejriwal to resign as Delhi chief minister

Arvind Kejriwal, Chief Minister of Delhi, greets his supporters after Supreme Court granted him bail in New Delhi.
  • Kejriwal is a fierce critic of Narendra Modi and a former anti-corruption crusader whose decade-old Aam Aadmi Party quickly rose to mainstream politics

NEW DELHI: Indian opposition leader Arvind Kejriwal said on Sunday he will resign as chief minister of the Delhi regional government, a day after he was released from prison on bail in a graft case. Kejriwal was granted bail on Friday by India’s Supreme Court and left prison on Saturday almost six months after being detained in relation to alleged irregularities in the capital city’s liquor policy.
Kejriwal is a fierce critic of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a former anti-corruption crusader whose decade-old Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) quickly rose to mainstream politics, although its clout is relatively small compared to older opposition parties.
AAP had expected that Kejriwal’s release from prison would allow him to campaign as a chief minister in regional elections next month in the northern state of Haryana, and in Delhi early next year.
Kejriwal, announcing his resignation as chief minister at a meeting with AAP workers, said he would only return to the post if people certify his honesty by voting for him in the upcoming Delhi election. He called on the Election Commission to bring forward the Delhi election to November, from February 2025.
“I demand elections be held in November with Maharashtra elections, I demand the elections be held immediately,” Kejriwal said.
He was first taken into custody in March by India’s financial crime-fighting agency, weeks before the country’s national elections, in relation to Delhi’s liquor policy.
Although he was granted bail in that case in July, he remained in detention due to his arrest the previous month by the federal police in another graft case related to the same policy.
Kejriwal, 55, and AAP deny the allegations and say the cases are “politically motivated.”