Kamala Harris and other politicians of color have often had to code-switch, or purposely adjust their speech style and expression to optimize relatability and ensure their message had cultural resonance
Kamala Harris has range. She can grill nominees for the Supreme Court or meet with foreign dignitaries, then pivot to hosting a Diwali celebration or dancing enthusiastically alongside an HBCU-styled marching band.
It is a dexterity that Harris, the first Black woman and Asian American to serve as vice president, developed as a person of color to navigate the corridors of power or Main Street in a nation where race and identity influence how one is received or embraced.
Harris, the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India, is an adroit code-switcher, a term that can include deliberately adjusting one’s speech style and expression to optimize relatability and ensure she gets a message across.
Former President Donald Trump, during a contentious interview session at a meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists, showed no familiarity with the concept. He implied that Harris is inauthentic for embracing all aspects of her heritage. His failure to recognize code-switching also speaks to a prevailing belief that whiteness, often correlated with speaking in plainly enunciated English, is the default in our politics and democracy.
“We need to be celebrating our whole selves, which means we need to celebrate all of our identities,” said Christine Chen, co-founder and executive director of APIAVote, a nonpartisan civic engagement organization focused on the Asian American Pacific Islander community.
“The more that a candidate can embrace their multiple identities, I think that’s a way to connect with different communities and different people who identify on different issues that you stand on,” added Chen, who is Chinese American.
Trump, who falsely suggested to the annual gathering of Black journalists that the vice president has been misleading voters about her race, waded into murkier waters by insinuating Harris cannot be trusted because she “happened to turn Black” after she promoted her Indian heritage.
Harris doesn’t need to code-switch to prove she is a Black and Indian American woman; she was born that way.
Shereen Marisol Meraji, former co-host of the award-winning NPR podcast “Code Switch,” said Harris‘ identity is layered and can still be challenging to navigate in a nation that once encouraged multiracial people to favor one identity over another.
“If you walk through the world as I have, where I’m trying very much to embrace both sides of myself, then it’s like you get put through these authenticity tests,” said Meraji, who is of Iranian and Puerto Rican heritage.
