Former CNN anchor Don Lemon once publicly questioned Kamala Harris’ black identity on live TV, taking issue with her “African American” label.
The interview unfolded in Feb. 2019, as Lemon and political commentator April Ryan debated the “blackness” of Harris, who bears Indian and Jamaican ancestry.
FLASHBACK: Former CNN host Don Lemon and April Ryan got into a heated fight on whether Kamala Harris is African Americanpic.twitter.com/yc3c8gPsZR
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) August 2, 2024
Ebony.com at the time carried a good read-out of the exchange:
After viewing a clip from the interview, Ryan questioned why the “blackness” of mixed-race candidates is always in question. Lemon then cuts her off, believing she missed the point.
“No, no, no, no, no, I think you’re not hearing what people are saying. The people that are saying, ‘is she Black enough,’ that’s bull, that’s BS. But to want that distinction, to say, ‘is she African-American or is she Black,’ or whatever, there is nothing wrong with that! There’s a difference between being African-American and being Black.”
Ryan responds by reiterating that Harris is a “Black woman,” for sure, which Lemon doesn’t dispute.
“I agree with that, but is she African-American? There is a difference, and there’s nothing wrong with that. No one’s trying to take anything away from her. I think you’re falling into the trap of that.”
He went on, “All she had to do was say, ‘I am Black, but I’m not African-American.’”
Ryan then pointed out that slaves from Africa were taken to the Caribbean, as well as the states, to which Lemon responds, “Jamaica’s not America. Jamaica did not come out of Jim Crow.”
Lemon’s comments on Kamala’s questionable racial identity are being revisited in the wake of former President Donald Trump’s remarks that Kamala Harris had previously embraced her Indian heritage when it was politically expedient, but is now attempting to identify as a black woman in order to gain the black vote.
“I’ve known her a long time, indirectly,” Trump said at a National Association of Black Journalists conference this week. “And she was always of Indian heritage, and she was only promoting Indian heritage. I did not 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.”
“I respect either one,” he said, adding, “but she obviously doesn’t, because she was Indian all the way, and then all of a sudden, she made a turn and … she became a black person. … Somebody should look into that, too.”
Harris has been criticized for leaning on her supposed black roots on the campaign trail, at one point addressing a predominantly black Atlanta crowd with a Southern drawl and using ebonics.
Kamala Harris went to speak in Atlanta and now has a Southern accent. LSU coach Brian Kelly is jealous. But in all seriousness, why do people do this? It’s just so transparently fake. pic.twitter.com/xIXt29SexL
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) July 31, 2024
