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Democrats Say GOP Mispronunciations Of ‘Kamala’ Is Racist


Bantering during the final night of the Democratic National Convention, actor Julia Louis-Dreyfus and former presidential candidate Andrew Yang repeatedly got the name of “our current vice president” wrong. Was it “Mika Pints?” or “Paints?” Or maybe “Ponce,” Yang suggested.

“Oh, some kind of weird foreign name?” Louis-Dreyfus asked.

“Yeah, not very American sounding,” Yang replied.

It was a quick bit of satire with a pointed message from Democrats: When top Republicans — including President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence — mispronounce Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ first name, it’s not just disrespectful, it’s racist.

Harris’ first name is pronounced “KAH’-mah-lah” — or, as she explains in her biography, “‘comma-la,’ like the punctuation mark.” But mispronunciations have been rampant in the days since the California senator became the first Black woman and the first Asian American woman named to a major party’s ticket. Pence referred to her as “kah-MAH’-lah,” putting his emphasis on the second syllable, at events last week. Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel did the same on Wednesday, as did Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania on Thursday, the day after Harris delivered a prime-time speech accepting the Democratic nomination — a speech he indicated he watched.

Harris’ supporters say the pattern amounts to a deliberate effort by Trump and his allies to portray Harris — the daughter of immigrants — as someone who does not belong at the top ranks of politics. The mispronunciations follow a string of attacks that include racist and sexist memes and questioning whether Harris, who was born in California, is eligible to serve as vice president because her mother was Indian and her father Jamaican. (Constitutional scholars and other legal experts say there is no question that she is eligible.)

“It is an effort to diminish her,” said Fatima Goss Graves, president of the National Women’s Law Center Action Fund. ”It’s designed to signal difference.”

Trump campaign officials did not immediately respond to questions about the errors.

To be sure, Harris isn’t the only politician who has watched other politicians and voters trip over her name. Former President Barack Obama, whose father was from Kenya, used to crack jokes about being a “skinny kid with a funny name.” Former presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, whose father was from Malta, went mostly by “Pete” — though his campaign made posters, chants and T-shirts with the pronunciation “Boot-Edge-Edge.”

Even Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden slipped up and mispronounced the first “a” in Kamala during his speech introducing her as his running mate, but he quickly repeated her name with the correct pronunciation.

Harris supporters say there is a difference between someone who makes an honest mistake and wants to correct it and people who knowingly mispronounce her name, or who don’t care enough to get it right.

In the introduction to her biography, Harris says her name means “lotus flower.” It’s a symbol of significance in Indian culture, she wrote, noting “a lotus grows underwater, its flower rising above the surface while its roots are planted firmly in the river bottom.”

When she first ran for the U.S. Senate, her campaign produced a video with small children demonstrating the proper way to say her first name.

But her defenders say Harris is well past the point of introduction — especially with Republican opponents. Harris served as California’s attorney general for seven years before being elected to the Senate in 2016. Since then, she’s made headlines for tough questioning of Trump appointees and raised her profile even more with her bid for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.

And even before she was elected to the Senate, Trump knew who she was — he donated to her 2014 campaign for attorney general.

Yet Trump has continued to get her name wrong, as have his allies.

Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani called Harris “Pamela” during an appearance on Fox News. Pence mispronounced her name multiple times during a stop last week in Iowa, where he warned a cheering crowd that the November election isn’t about a choice between Republicans and Democrats or conservatives and liberals.

“I think the choice in this election is whether America remains America,” he said, going on to mispronounce her name moments later.

Pence pronounced Harris’ name correctly during an appearance on Fox News on Friday, hours after the exchange between Louis-Dreyfus and Yang.

Fox News host Tucker Carlson grew agitated when a guest corrected him last week after he also pronounced Kamala incorrectly. “So what?” he said, before mispronouncing her name again and complaining about liberals being too sensitive.

McDaniel also got the pronunciation wrong earlier this week during an appearance on Fox News, even though the host questioning McDaniel was saying it correctly.

Many people, particularly people of color, relate to Harris having her name mispronounced because they face the same situation in workplaces and elsewhere, said Goss Graves. She’s grappled herself with people mispronouncing her first name — it’s fah-TEE’-mah — and whether, or when, to correct them.

But it’s a very different thing, she said, to be a candidate for one of the highest offices in the world and have your colleagues and members of the media repeatedly mispronounce your name — or not care enough to get it right.

“When people are running for the highest levels of government, there’s an expectation they will be afforded with dignity and respect,” she said.

(AP)



10 Responses

  1. Let’s call her “camel” Ah, in reference to great cigarette brand of cause. I didn’t mean to suggest that she might look like a camel, but her name origin might be just that.

  2. > “there’s an expectation they will be afforded with dignity and respect”

    Like what they have shown to Trump – 12 August quote she referred to Trump “He’s a serial predator. I’ve spent my career putting them away,” – now that is respect and dignity!

  3. Yidden have the same problem getting Americans to pronounce our names. Most settle for an Anglicized form, at least to the extent of not insisting on sounds in our names that aren’t in English (e.g. Aleph, Ayin, Heh, Ches, Ches, Chaf, Tsadi).
    It has nothing to do with race (BTW, South Asians are “white”), and a lot to do with linguistics. Is it racist if someone can’t pronounce יצחק correctly?

  4. Pronouncing someone’s name as it is supposed to be pronounced is simple decency. Have the Republicans steeped so low that they can’t even do that?

  5. Charliehall, people legitimately have difficulty pronouncing unfamiliar names that can be pronounced several different ways from the spelling.You should hear some non-Jews attempts at “Elisheva”.I don’t get upset or angry ,why should they know how it’s pronounced?

  6. Even sleepy Joe mispronounced her name on numerous occasions. Sorry Pamela………..Camelhair…………..Camilla……..or whatever the heck your name is. LOSER!!

  7. The headline literally says it all.
    Only when the GOP mispronounces it is is racist.

    Anderson cooper mispronounced it and never got it right. Joe Biden mispronounced it. That’s all fine and dandy. As long as they are not GOP.

    This behavior should sicken anyone. This is an elementary school level of bullying.

    This reminds me of when I was in school. Someone said something that appeared to be funny. When I repeated the same thing back to him, he said that it was not funny, and that it was stupid. This is is bullying, in your face, hypocrisy.

    This should disturb everyone. The Left is literally projecting whatever issues they have, onto the Right, and anyone who stands in their way.

    If Trump wins, I feel like there is very likely chance that Nancy Pelosi will join together with George Soros, and take some kind of armed forces, to try to remove the president.

    Weare living in pre civil war 2 times, mark my words. This is getting to be pre-holocaust.

    We wonder how there could ever be another holocaust. It’s very simple. If the left, along with antifa and BLM, decide to lock up the privileged white man, or incarcerate you because you are a racist in their minds, and are dangerous in their minds, and they literally do not believe that you are a worthy human being, they will lock you up.

    Kristallnacht part 2 has already begun.

  8. Let’s get this absolutely clear: Even Biden “mispronounced” her name. Stop listening to fake news, it’s out there. Blaming GOP for that shows you have a mental disorder

  9. The pandemic is still around, the BLM’ers are still protesting, the economy is failing, the looters are looting, the shooters are shooting, and whiny kamala is whining about a mispronunciation of her name??? The dems have no other issues? They should stay with their heads buried in the sand for all eternity.

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