'Is she black or Indian?' Trump questions Harris' racial identity

Washington : Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has launched a racially insensitive attack against Kamala Harris by questioning whether she is “Indian or Black”, drawing a sharp reaction from his Democratic rival who termed his remarks "the same old show" of "divisiveness" and "disrespect".

Trump, 78, falsely claimed Vice President Harris had only emphasised her Asian-American heritage until recently when, he claimed, "she became a black person". “I've known her a long time, indirectly, not directly very much, and she was always of Indian heritage, and she was only promoting Indian heritage. I didn't know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black, and now she wants to be known as Black," Trump said at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Chicago on Wednesday, as the race for the November 5 presidential election gained momentum with opinion polls showing that Harris has narrowed the gap with her Republican rival.

"So I don't know - Is she Indian? Or is she black?" Harris' mother is originally from India, and her father is from Jamaica. As an undergraduate, Harris attended Howard University, a historically black school in Washington, and belongs to Alpha Kappa Alpha, the country's oldest Black sorority. She was also the president of the Black Law Students Association while studying at the University of California's law school in San Francisco, and a member of the Congressional Black Caucus during her time in the Senate.

When one of the journalists who was interviewing Trump on stage tried to tell him that Harris had always identified as Black and had attended a historically Black university, the former president continued: “I respect either one, but she obviously doesn't. Because she was Indian all the way, and then all of a sudden, she made a turn, and she went – she became a Black person. And I think somebody should look into that too.”

Trump's comments prompted immediate criticism. Speaking at an event in Houston Wednesday for the Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, a historically Black sorority, Harris told the crowd that "this afternoon, Donald Trump spoke at the annual meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists, and it was the same old show." "The divisiveness and the disrespect, and let me just say, the American people deserve better."

Harris, 59, did not directly address the content of Trump's words but said that Americans "deserve a leader who tells the truth, a leader who does not respond with hostility and anger when confronted with the facts, we deserve a leader who understands that our differences do not divide us, they are an essential source of our strength."

Harris campaign communications director Michael Tyler earlier said the "hostility Trump showed on stage today is the same hostility he has shown throughout his life, throughout his term in office, and throughout his campaign for president."