Donald Trump and the Trope of the Multiracial Chameleon | Opinion

There was a lot to be insulted by when former President Donald Trump suggested this month that Democratic rival Vice President Kamala Harris “happened to turn Black.” He accused her of only promoting her Indian heritage until recently, asking, “So I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?”
Multiracial people everywhere were not surprised, just disappointed. We’ve been waiting for this trope to rear its ugly head, that we choose one identity or the other when it suits us like a chameleon would use camouflage to blend in with or stand out from its surroundings. And that we are never enough of one thing.
We are tired of this trope, and we need to talk about it, because it does not just come from the mouths of red-hat-wearing extremists like Donald Trump. We often face these slights and accusations from people who think they’re on our side, but still insist we pick a side. It’s time to put it to an end.
First, hopefully it goes without saying that Harris, whose mother is Indian and father is Jamaican, has long self-identified as both Black and Asian, owning and celebrating both parts of herself in her narrative and life experience. We should not have to pull out her list of credentials like attending Howard University and being a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha, a Divine 9 Black sorority. How we as multiracial people might try to affiliate to achieve a sense of belonging is often used for or against us years later, when at the time, we were just trying to figure out ourselves and our place in the world.
I identify as multiracial, with an Indian immigrant father and Jewish American mother. If that wasn’t complicated enough, they ran an Irish pub in Los Angeles and bestowed upon me an uncommon Hindu name that is often associated with Black culture. It was a lot growing up, and my parents didn’t really have the language to help. They were trying to justify their own union to a segregated nation and world.
Back then, before the Barack Obamas and Kamala Harrises were in the spotlight, we had no such mainstream stories like ours to claim as uniquely American. We were just complicated people who constantly got asked, but where are you really from? No really.
And the thing is, when we are asked this question, most people already have an answer in their heads, and they just want us to validate it. I was arrested by the Los Angeles Police Department at the age of 13 for supposedly being “out after curfew” with my friend who was Indigenous and Black, and the first and second questions they asked us were, “Are you Mexican?” and “Are you sure you’re not Mexican?” In fact, when they finally started filling out the arrest paperwork in the middle of the night and asked us what race we indeed were, we began to explain our heritage, and they just laughed and said, “Okay. Other.”
Other has never been an easy box to check, or a pleasant way to feel. One in 10 Americans now identifies as multiracial, and we finally get to check the boxes and tell the stories that fully reflect us. But now Trump wants to put us back into one box, which Harris was right to call the “same old show” of divisiveness and disrespect.
We are ready for the challenge of ending this dog whistling about who we are, and so are the majority of Americans, who are sick of having ideas about their identities thrust upon them. That’s why you saw an effort to unify behind Kamala Harris that was led by Black women, but backed up by many other marginalized communities who know how this division hurts them.
In the end, everyday Americans have risen up to defend and support Harris because we are everyday Americans, and so are the people who love us and are proud to stand with us. And we are not going back to being put in a box.
Kesha Ram Hinsdale is a Vermont state senator and has taught civil rights and environmental law at Vermont Law & Graduate School. She was Kamala Harris’ Vermont State Chair for her presidential campaign in 2020. She lives in Shelburne with her husband, 1-year-old daughter, and has a son due in September.
The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.