On Tuesday, in the first debate between the two political rivals, Vice President Kamala Harris will duke it out with former President Donald Trump. In the run-up to the crucial fight, Harris’ supporters are talking about how she’ll address – or defend – her identity on the grand stage
Harris’ candidacy represents a form of progress for Black women vying for high offices, but there are still significant double standards in the pursuit.
Harris is expected to balance an array of competing demands and manage questions about her racial identity at the same time..
“Al Gore sighed a lot during one of his debates, and people were like, ‘Oh, he’s so impatient and professorial, and he thinks that he’s bigger and better and smarter than everyone,’” Theodore R. Johnson, a senior adviser at New America, a public policy think tank, told Capital B. “Similar stereotypes are waiting for Harris on the night of the debate.”
At a town hall this month with the Fox News host Sean Hannity, Trump called Harris “dangerous,” and he insisted that she doesn’t like to do interviews because she isn’t “too smart.”
In August, the former president reposted a remark on Truth Social, his social media platform, that implied that Harris had exchanged sexual favors for political advancement. (He shared a similar comment less than two weeks before.)
And at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in July, Trump questioned Harris’ racial identity, claiming that she “happened to turn Black, and now she wants to be known as Black” after identifying as Indian.
In Harris’ first major interview since Biden bowed out of the contest, CNN’s Dana Bash asked the vice president about Trump’s NABJ assertion, Harris deflected, telling Bash that Trump was borrowing a page from the “same old, tired” book. “Next question, please,” Harris said. She might repeat this tactic on the debate stage.
Harris’ efforts to sidestep conversations about identity means that she probably won’t lean into her racial and ethnic background with the same force that, say, Biden did when he visited Ireland in 2023.
“There are many unfair expectations in American politics and in how we talk about Black people, particularly Black women. Harris is trying to navigate very delicate issues pertaining to race — but also gender,” Keisha N. Blain, a professor of Africana studies and history at Brown University, told Capital B, noting that these restrictions might limit the degree to which Harris can talk about her Indian mother and Jamaican father.
Blain said that Harris and supporters are surely mindful of the blowback that followed the first Black president, Barack Obama, after his eight years in the Oval Office.
“Many would argue that Trump was able to seize power largely because of the significant backlash to the Obama presidency,” Blain said. “If you agree with that perspective, then that means that you don’t want to keep reminding voters about your race, especially because you know that it’s a point of contention.”
Read More: Can Kamala Harris Recreate the Political Momentum of 2008?
To an extent, Harris is doing what some Black conservatives have urged Trump to do: remove identity from the contest.
“I don’t really care about all of that,” Ronald Gibson, a Black Mississippian, told Capital B earlier this summer. “Just say, ‘Here’s what I’ve done, and here’s how it’s affected you. Here’s what our opponent has done, and here’s how it’s affected you.’ Tell me those things.”
This story has been updated.