Below are answers to frequently asked questions about the corresponding page Kamala Harris. They address concerns, questions, and misconceptions which have repeatedly arisen on the talk page. Please feel free to change this material in light of new discussion. |
As PolitiFact notes (see A look at Kamala Harris' multi-ethnic background and racial identity in the US, PolitiFact (August 14, 2020)), social media posts have inaccurately suggested that Harris cannot be African American because she has an Indian mother and Jamaican father, but "this is a poor understanding of history, and ... the implication that Jamaicans aren't African or connected to Africa is wrong on its face." While not all Jamaican-Americans identify as "African-American," Harris and many others do.
When Wikipedia describes Harris as the "first" to do something, we default to the larger category. Therefore, she isn't the first Tamil-, Indian-, or South Asian-American to be elected Vice President of the US (although she is all of those things); instead we note, as reliable sources do, that she's the first Asian-American.