Predictions are a fool’s game. But I’ll tell you one thing any fool could have predicted: that Donald Trump’s appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists’ convention last week would involve him saying something stupid and racist.
Lo and behold, this is exactly what happened. When asked about Kamala Harris, Trump complained that the vice-president seemed to have undergone some sort of racial metamorphosis. “I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black,” Trump proclaimed. “So, I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?”
He added: “You know what, I respect either one. But she obviously doesn’t, because she was Indian all the way, then all of a sudden she made a turn and she became a Black person. And I think somebody should look into that.”
While somebody is looking into that, they should probably also investigate what year Trump thinks it is. I know the guy was born in 1946 – 21 years before the US struck down state antimiscegenation statutes – but it’s 2024. It feels laughably out of touch to be publicly bemused by multiracial people when they are the fastest growing demographic in the US. This growth is partly down to an increase in interracial couples, but it is also because the 2020 US census added more nuance to racial categorisation, allowing for better data capture. People whose identity didn’t fit into a neat little box didn’t have to tick “Other” any more.
I am not saying that being mixed-race is all sunshine and roses. There is still plenty of othering. Unfortunately, Trump is not the only person who can’t get their head around the fact that you can have multiple identities. As a Palestinian Briton in the US, I have certainly experienced my fair share of people implying I am neither British enough nor Palestinian enough.
Well, polite people imply. Plenty of people, mainly hiding behind avatars online, are happy to tell me directly that, with a name like mine, I couldn’t possibly be English and should go back to where I came from. (Um, you mean Brixton? If you mean Palestine, I’ve got something awkward to tell you about the right of return.) As the far-right riots in the UK attest, there are still people who believe that Britishness is an exclusive club to which only those with white skin have access.
A lot of people still seem to think that being mixed race means being fragmented; being half this, half that. But I don’t have a Palestinian leg and an English mouth. Mixed people aren’t half anything; we are wholly ourselves. And most of us are very happy with our lot.
During a recent rally in Texas, Harris brushed off Trump’s remarks about her race, saying it was “the same old show”. But while there is nothing unusual about Trump’s racism, what is new is the fact that the man has a running mate with mixed-race children. Was JD Vance, whose kids have a combination of white American and Indian American heritage, upset about his boss’s remarks?
If he was, then he has done a good job of hiding it. When asked about the comments last week, Vance defended Trump, calling the reaction “hysterical”. He added: “I think [Trump] pointed out the fundamental chameleon-like nature of Kamala Harris … She’s fake. She’s phoney.” It’s the sort of shocking and self-obsessed answer you would expect from a man who, when asked about white supremacists attacking his wife, Usha Vance, answered by basically saying he loved her even though she is not white.
Trump’s jabs about racial identity may have been aimed at Harris, but they were felt across the US; they echoed insults that millions of mixed-race Americans have heard before. Ultimately, though, they probably hurt him more than anyone else. While Vance has staked his future on Trump, it has never been more clear that the former president is a relic of the past.
• Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist
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