Democratic 2020 presidential contender Sen. Kamala Harris’s father called her out Friday for promoting a “fraudulent stereotype” when she joked about her Jamaican heritage influencing her decision to smoke pot in college during a Feb. 11 interview.
Donald Harris, the California Democratic senator’s father, was not happy about how she portrayed her Jamaican roots and issued the following statement:
My dear departed grandmothers (whose extraordinary legacy I described in a recent essay on this website), 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. Speaking for myself and my immediate Jamaican family, we wish to categorically dissociate ourselves from this travesty.
Harris is a retired Stanford University professor who has been involved in high-level economic policy for the Jamaican government, reported The Daily Mail. (RELATED: Trump Officially Launches Space Force, But There’s A Catch)
Harris faced backlash after saying that during her college days she smoked pot and listened to rap artists Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg. Her critics quickly pointed out that Shakur released his first album in 1991 and Snoop Dogg in 1993, after Harris had graduated from Howard University in 1986.
Others pounced on the fact that Harris sent an estimated 1,560 people to state prisons for marijuana-related offenses between 2011 and 2016 while she was California’s attorney general, reported The Washington Free Beacon.
Democratic 2020 U.S. presidential candidate and U.S. Senator Kamala Harris takes the stage for a campaign town hall meeting in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, U.S., February 18, 2019. REUTERS/Brian Snyder
In her revelatory radio interview, however, she claimed smoking pot was a joyful activity, Harris told “The Breakfast Club.”
“Listen, I think that it gives more people joy,” Harris added. “We need more joy.”
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