Kamala Harris is not just Indian, she is Tamil, and THAT is important.
By now if you have not heard about Kamala Harris being Biden’s pick for the vice presidency…what am I saying? Of course you have.
Kamala Harris is Blasian, in that she has a Black father and an Indian mother but it is important to note that her mother is not just Indian, she is Tamil, which is why Kamala Harris has her first name.
By the way, it is pronounced as Ka(COme)- Ma(MERmaid)-La(LAH). Not CAMEL-a or Ka-MAH-la or any of these other variations that have made me cringe. Also, her middle name is Devi, pronounced as “they-vee.”
Once the announcement of her candidacy was made, I knew immediately what was going to happen and now, here I am watching it happen in real-time: Asian media, especially South Asian media, has completely erased her Tamil heritage, instead focusing on how she is “Indian.”
If you aren’t Indian, you are probably wondering what’s the big deal, so I will try to explain.
Within South Asia, and within India, Tamil people are hated. We are hated for being dark-skinned, because Indians are obsessed with light-skin and colourism is so rampant within the Indian community.
North Indians hate Tamils because we refuse to speak Hindi and we have historically rallied the South against…
