Questions about Kamala Harris’ identity underscore the reality of race — and racism — in America

Kamala Harris is Black. Saying that does not discount the fact that her mother is from India. It simply acknowledges the reality of race — and racism — in America.

As a Black woman, Harris — the Democratic nominee for president of the United States — will face questions other candidates simply will not, and the most pointed queries will come from within the Black community.

Does her mother’s Indian ancestry mean she’s not a Black American? Does her father, as a Jamaican, still qualify as Black? Will her policies include measures that are specific to Black people? Does she prefer Spades over Pinochle at the cookout?

I covered the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and in the week since I returned, I’ve been reflecting on the range of reactions to Harris’ candidacy I’ve witnessed in our community.

At the convention, I saw African Americans who were absolutely giddy about Harris’ candidacy. Others displayed an enthusiasm that was infectious. Still others, including two delegates who hailed from New Jersey, told me they were happy to support Harris because she’s not Donald Trump.

But when I ventured outside the cocoon of partisan excitement and into the streets outside the United Center, regular Chicagoans echoed the questions circulating on social media. The first and most pressing of those inquiries is simply this: Is Kamala Harris Black?

That’s what my African American Uber driver asked me as he transported me back to my hotel from the convention Wednesday night. I told him yes, Harris is Black, but he pressed the issue, so I took a different tact.

“What are you when your daddy’s Black?” I asked. “Her father is Jamaican.”

“Yeah, but they said her father is an Indian Jamaican.”

I didn’t ask who he meant by “they.” Instead, I said that her father, Donald Harris, is a Black Jamaican. I told him that I’d met Harris, that I’d seen her interacting with African Americans, and that she moved among us with the ease and comfort only other Black Americans tend to display.

He didn’t seem to be convinced, and though the driver said he wasn’t a political person, he repeated a statement Trump has made on numerous occasions — that Trump gave 10 years of funding to historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs).

It’s true that Trump signed the FUTURE Act, which made a preexisting federal funding stream permanent. However, Trump’s claim that he “saved” HBCUs from ruin by signing that legislation is a stretch, since states have underfunded HBCUs to the tune of $12 billion.

Trump also has repeatedly said that his predecessor, Barack Obama, would never have funded the schools long term. The fact-checking site PolitiFact has rated Trump’s statements as “mostly false” because Obama also allocated money to HBCUs from the same pot of federal money.

But in the current political environment, where fact-based news often takes a back seat to online hyperbole, too many in my community believe the loudest voices are the most credible. Perhaps more troubling, there are those among us who want to exclude Black people whose ancestry isn’t wholly rooted in the United States from being African Americans.

I find it ironic that in Black communities where people have proudly claimed to be of “mixed” ancestry, some are now angry that Harris is multiracial. Does that make her less Black than the rest of us?

Does Harris, or any Black person, get to explain the intricacies of their lineage when they are harassed by police, followed in stores, unjustly denied bank loans, or subjected to racist insults?

I’ll save you the trouble of answering. No, we don’t get to explain our Blackness. We simply have to live it.

Harris is a Black woman running for president, and she will be treated as such. That’s why, as I sat in the United Center and listened to Michelle Obama say the quiet part out loud, I was gratified to hear someone voice what I’d been feeling for weeks.

“We know folks are going to do everything they can to distort her truth,” Obama said. “My husband and I, sadly, know a little something about this.”

I’m sure Harris knows it, too. That’s why, when Trump intimated that Harris “turned Black” in recent years, it could not have been a surprise to Harris, and it should not shock the rest of us, either.

Regardless of who we support in the presidential race, African Americans should know better than to question Harris’ race, because there’s more than one way to be Black.