My Thoughts on the Kamala Harris "Blackness" Debate
My Thoughts on the Kamala Harris "Blackness" Debate
Both the Left and Right get this wrong and why we need an African American Descendants of Slavery (ADOS) registry and ethnic designation for the census.
My Mexican-African American mixed niece is currently living with me while she’s in school because she couldn’t stay in the dorms her sophomore year in college. The other day we were discussing the Kamala Harris “Black” debate, and she views Kamala as a mixed Indian-Jamaican American and not “Black” because she doesn’t descend from African American slaves.
For some reason, the establishment is lumping 93% of the world’s various ethno-cultural groups as “people of color” to pit against Europeans. The African immigrant experience in the United States isn’t the same as African American Descendants of Slavery (ADOS) who were treated as cattle, enslaved, experienced Jim Crow, communities flooded with crack cocaine, and currently endure mass incarceration —just to name a few.
Native Americans Have a Registry, So Why Not ADOS?
Not just anyone can claim Native American benefits without being raised on an Indian reservation or descended from someone listed on the registry. The same should apply for African American Descendants of Slavery. Just because someone identifies as a “person of color” doesn’t mean they should get priority over the people Anglos stole land from and enslaved. America owes a debt to the Natives and Black Americans, everyone else chose to come here. So, suck it up.
I support the ADOS movement to have a separate ethnic designation and registry for their descendants. It should be listed on census forms, college applications, loan applications, and for employment. Leaders of ADOS have stated they don’t want to be lumped in with other “Black” people—namely African immigrants and Black immigrants from the Caribbean. Most African immigrants and their children tend to refer to themselves as Nigerian, Somalian, Kenyan, Jamaican, Dominican, Haitian, and not “Black.”
The African Immigrant and Black American Educational Gap
Kamala Harris’ parents were Indian and Jamaican immigrants who immigrated in the late 1950’s and early 60’s.
Her mother, Shyamala Gopalan was a biologist who graduated from the University of California at Berkeley Her father, Donald J. Harris is an economics professor at Stanford University. This tends to be the norm for African immigrants and their children, but not so for African American Descendants of Slavery.
According to the Pew Research Center, 31% of African immigrants ages 25 and older have a bachelor’s degree or higher. Only 28.1% of the Black population hold a degree; these statistics are skewed higher because it includes the children of African immigrants. I couldn’t find any data on the educational attainment gap solely for ADOS.
Colleges Using African Immigrants to Fill “Black” Quotas
A 1999 study from the National Longitudinal Survey of Freshmen showed African immigrants account for 26.7% of the black college student population and it was worse at the Ivy Leagues where it reached as high as 40% were African immigrants. African Americans are only 13% of the population and at least a third of “Black” college students were not descendants of slavery.
Affirmative Action was originally established to right the wrongs of slavery and for stealing Native Americans’ land. It was never supposed to be a perk for everyone who chose to come here.
Talcum X - Race Grifter
Immigration Brain Drain
In 2014, Amy Chua (JD Vance’s mentor) wrote The Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America that argued certain immigrant groups are more successful than others because of their superior cultural habits. Chua completely ignored the selection effects due to the subset of people from different regions who are able to emigrate tend to be of a higher social class and high-skill immigrants.
Republicans will point to African immigrant educational attainment statistics to justify their racist policies that disproportionately harms ADOS.
“See, our policies don’t discriminate because Chinese immigrants earn more than whites!”
Foreign Born Educational Attainment is Higher Than Native Born
There’s nothing wrong with high skill immigrants coming here and doing well. The problem is when the US census lumps all these ethno-cultural groups together to hide disparities in statistical data. They do the same thing with “whites” who are listed as Western European, Eastern European, South European (minus Spain), Central Asian, Middle Eastern, and North Africa. It hides the discrimination and disparities among Appalachian Americans and other European ethnic groups.
I do think Kamala Harris should force the media to embrace her heritage because mixed people are becoming the norm. It’s disingenuous to treat people who chose to immigrate here as having the same experience as Black Americans. All immigrant groups have dealt with xenophobia and racism from the native population. They called us all kinds of racist epithets like P*llock, K*ke, Dag*e, and redlined Southern and Eastern European immigrants, so Whites didn’t have to live next to Blacks. Thats why five of my cousins from Chicago are Polish-Mexican and one is Black-Polish.
The least we can do for Black Americans or ADOS is give them a special designation like we have for Native Americans to recognize the harm done for centuries. Kamala Harris should embrace and share her Indian and Jamaican cultural heritage. Mixed people are here to stay.
-D.C.
O'Connells latest headline....Erik Prince sends 2000 "immigrants" before election. Prince knight of malta traitor to America, trafficking drugs and who knows what else. Treason everywhere save a few who expose it all, such as dividedconquered.