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Donald Trump has repeatedly, and deliberately, mispronounced Vice President Kamala Harris’s name.
Now, Harris’s own grandnieces have proven that it’s so easy to say, even small children can get it right.
In a touching moment at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday, eight-year-old Amara Ajagu and her sister six-year-old Leela joined actor Kerry Washington on stage in Chicago to coach the crowd to correctly pronounce the name Kamala.
“It’s come to my attention that there are some folks who struggle — or pretend to struggle — with the proper pronunciation of our future president’s name,” Washington said, before introducing the “very special guests” to the crowd.
“Confusion is understandable,” the Scandal star added. “Disrespect is not. So tonight we are going to help everyone get it right.”
Setting the record straight, the two little girls took it in turns to explain as simply as possible how to pronounce their grandaunt’s name.
Amara went first: “First you say ‘comma’ like the comma in a sentence.”
“Then you say ‘la’ like la-la-la-la-la,” followed up Leela in a sing-song voice to emphasize her point.
“Olay, let’s practice,” Washington said.
The trio then led the crowd in a practice.
“Everybody over here say ‘comma’!” Amara instructed the people to her left.
“Everybody over here say ‘la’!” instructed her sister to the opposite side of the Chicago stadium.
The United Center roared to each young girl in response: “Kamala”
With Washington’s direction, the crowd ended up chanting “Kamala”, before she added “for president” at the end, to a roar of approval from the audience.
As well as making up derogatory nicknames for his political rival, calling her “Kamabla” at one point, Trump has repeatedly intentionally butchered Harris’s name.
Speaking at the Believers Summit held by conservative Christian group Turning Point Action last week in Florida, Trump interrupted himself to claim “there are numerous ways of saying her name.”
He bluntly and shockingly declared he “couldn’t care less” about getting her name right or wrong.
This isn’t the first time Harris, whose mother was Indian and father is Jamaican, has tried to get people to learn how to pronounce her name, even releasing a video during her run for the Senate in 2016 explaining it.
According to ancestry.com, her name stems from the Sanskrit word “kamalam”, meaning lotus flower, and is also the birth name of the character Ms Marvel - a Pakistani-American superhero teen from New Jersey.
Amara and Leela, who are the daughters of Harris’s niece, Meena, weren’t the only family members to appear on stage at the DNC to support her presidential campaign.
Holding back tears, Harris’s sister Maya Harris told the crowd what their mother, who died in 2009, would say at seeing her eldest daughter accept the Democratic party’s nomination for president.
“I could just see her smiling saying how proud she is of Kamala,” she said. “And then, without missing a beat, she’d say, ‘That’s enough. You have work to do.’”
Harris’s goddaughter Helena Hudlin, niece Meena Harris and stepdaughter Ella Emhoff also came together on stage on Thursday night to share a personal side to the vice president.
Ella spoke about her “Momala” coming into her life when she was 14 years old – “famously a very easy time for a teenager,” she joked.
“Like a lot of young people, I didn’t always understand what I was feeling,” the now 25-year-old artist and designer said.
“But no matter what, Kamala was there for me. She was patient, caring and always took me seriously. She’s never stopped listening to me and she’s not going to stop listening to all of us.”
Harris’s husband, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, spoke at the DNC earlier in the week, revealing how they met on a blind date in 2013.
He was introduced to the stage by his son Cole Emhoff with a moving video.
Celebrating Harris as his wife, stepmother to his children and as a potential future president, the second gentleman told the crowd: “Wherever she’s needed, however she’s needed, Kamala rises to the occasion. And she did it for me and my family.”
Emhoff’s ex-wife Kerstin Emhoff – a vocal supporter of Harris who has spoken about co-parenting Ella and Cole with Emhoff, Harris and herself – has also joined the family every day of the convention.
