The race to the US Presidential Polls in November 2024 is getting intense, and so are the claims and counterclaims flying thick and fast.
A day after Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump questioned Kamala Harris’s ethnicity, a claim surfaced that Kamala Harris was raised in Canada and is not African-American.
Several users have posted on social media platforms that Kamala Harris was raised in Montreal.
Did Kamala Harris grow up in Canada? Read on to know more about this story.
The latest salvo, ‘Where Did Kamala Harris Grow Up?’ is one of a slew of allegations made against the US Vice President, who is the Democratic candidate after Joe Biden withdrew from the Presidential race.
However, these claims are an exaggeration and misstate reality.
Kamala Harris was born to Jamaican and Indian parents and spent most of her early childhood in the US.
After her parents divorced, her mother, who was a scientist, moved to Canada, where Kamala completed her schooling.
Harris graduated from a Montreal-area high school in 1981.
Kamala returned to the US and attended Howard University, then earned her law degree at the University of California.
It is imperative to note that Kamala has long been identified as Black since her mother was of Indian origin and her father was Jamaican.
The federal government counts people of Jamaican ancestry as Black or African American.
A study by Michigan State University in 2020 revealed that 90% of the people in Jamaica identify as Black.
A major proportion of its population are descendants of African slaves brought to work on its sugar estates.
Donald Trump had earlier questioned Kamala’s ethnicity and said that Kamala had earlier talked more about her Indian lineage but suddenly started considering herself as Black.
Trump wanted to shore up support among the Black community with his latest missive against Kamala.
Blacks have generally supported the Democrats compared to Republicans.
Harris’s campaign team immediately reacted to Trump’s allegation and termed it as an attempt to divide Americans.
It added that Trump’s team is using its divisive policy to once again regain power.
This is not the first time that Kamala Harris has been at the receiving end of a false narrative.
One more false narrative that was smacked on Kamala was that she imprisoned 2000 Black (sic) on minor drug charges beyond their release date as a labour resource.
Some even went a step ahead and termed it slave labour.
This was another exaggerated charge since the arguments to delay the release of nonviolent offenders were made by attorneys for her California Attorney General’s office to help fight wildfires.”
Also Read: Did Kamala Harris Fail Her Bar Exam: What to Know?
