Podcast Host Shows How To Talk With Kamala Harris About Race

Former NBA player and current podcast host Matt Barnes showed there’s a right way to ask Vice President Kamala Harris about her identity as a person of mixed race.

During Monday’s episode of his “All the Smoke” podcast, Barnes asked Harris what she learned as the child of Indian and Jamaican immigrants.

It was a far cry from other questions the vice president has been asked about her racial background, mainly because Barnes, who is himself a mixed-race Black person, wasn’t using the kind of false and inflammatory framing embraced by people like former President Donald Trump.

“You’ve always been secure in your identity, who you are,” Barnes said. “But what do you feel, or what do you think, when you hear people kind of questioning just the fabric of who you are?”

“Well, one, I don’t listen to it,” Harris replied, laughing. “I’m really clear about who I am. And if anybody else is not, they need to go through their own level of therapy. That’s not my issue.”

“My mother was very clear. She was raising two Black girls to be two proud Black women. And that was never — it was never a question,” she went on. “You know, it’s funny, because over the years, journalists — some, not most — will want to talk about it. And I say: ‘OK, if you want to have this conversation, I’m prepared to have it. But sit down and get comfortable for a few hours, if you want to start talking about race in America.’”

You can see the whole exchange below.

Ever since Harris became the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee, Trump has been questioning her background, making racist claims that Harris has been misleading or dishonest about her identity.

“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,” the former president said of Harris at the National Association of Black Journalists’ annual convention in July. “So, I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?”

Contrary to Trump’s accusation, Harris has long identified as both Black and South Asian American.

Shortly after Trump’s remarks ― which even some Republicans didn’t seem thrilled about ― Harris dismissed the former president’s comments as “the same old show, the divisiveness and the disrespect.”

Last month, in an interview with the vice president, CNN’s Dana Bash brought up Trump’s NABJ comments, apparently in the hopes of seeing if Harris had anything to say on the subject.

“Same old, tired playbook,” Harris told Bash. “Next question, please.”