To be very clear, being a person of color is not a choice. We do not decide to just be a race because it’s fitting, is opportunistic. Many of us, especially in America, are born into a country that has systematically marginalized its Black and brown people, and yet, now we are being accused of appropriating our own race.
The most recent remarks made by former President Donald Trump at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Chicago about Vice President Kamala Harris are so alarming because he was doing just that—accusing Harris of appropriating her Jamaican-Black heritage to better identify with her Black constituents.
“She was always of Indian heritage, and she was only promoting Indian heritage,” Trump said. “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. So I don't know, is she Indian or is she Black?”
