Kamala Harris’ Jamaican father rips her for pushing pot stereotype ‘in pursuit of identity politics’
Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif. speaks during the the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, on Capitol Hill in Washington Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2019. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
By Victor Morton – The Washington Times
When Sen. Kamala Harris said last week that she obviously supports marijuana legalization and has smoked the plant, she cited her ethnicity — “Half my family’s from Jamaica. Are you kidding me?”
Her Jamaican father is not happy about that.
In a statement to Jamaica Global Online, Donald Harris called his daughter’s remarks a “travesty” and accused her of stereotyping.
“My dear departed grandmother … as well as my deceased parents, must be turning in their grave right now to see their family’s name, reputation and proud Jamaican identity being connected, in any way, jokingly or not with the fraudulent stereotype of a pot-smoking joy seeker and in the pursuit of identity politics,” he said.
“Speaking for myself and my immediate Jamaican family, we wish to categorically dissociate ourselves from this travesty,” Mr. Harris, an economics professor at Stanford University, concluded in a statement to the news site for the Jamaican diaspora.
“My dear departed grandmother … as well as my deceased parents, must be turning in their grave right now to see their family’s name, reputation and proud Jamaican identity being connected, in any way, jokingly or not with the fraudulent stereotype of a pot-smoking joy seeker and in the pursuit of identity politics,” he said.
“Speaking for myself and my immediate Jamaican family, we wish to categorically dissociate ourselves from this travesty,” Mr. Harris, an economics professor at Stanford University, concluded in a statement to the news site for the Jamaican diaspora.
Jamaica Global fretted that the remarks by Ms. Harris — an early front-runner for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination — could fuel stereotypes of Jamaicans and cited U.S. news outlets’ headlines and columnists using the image.
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https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/feb/19/kamala-harris-jamaican-father-donald-harris-rips-2/