Should Harris Talk Much About Her Racial Identity? Many Voters Say No.
The New York Times
Even as Trump plays up racial divisions, many Americans said they would rather not dwell on race or identity. “We can all see that you’re Black.”
“Obviously, we have eyes.”
That was the somewhat jaded response by Larhonda Marshall, a 42-year-old health care worker from Chicago, about all the attention being paid to Vice President Kamala Harris’s racial identity.
As a Black woman herself, Ms. Marshall said that the symbolism of a Harris victory would surely be on her mind as she considers her vote for president. But it was not the most important factor at all, she said. And she wishes the Harris supporters who keep mentioning it would drop it.
“I’m tired of hearing it,” Ms. Marshall said. “That’s not an issue. I just want what’s best for the country.”
This week, after former President Donald J. Trump claimed falsely that Ms. Harris “happened to turn Black” only recently, the vice president did not attempt to clarify the obvious: that she has, in fact, been Black all her life.
She did not mention race at all. Rather, she denounced Mr. Trump’s “divisiveness and disrespect” in a previously planned speech to a historically Black sorority, Sigma Gamma Rho.
