By Madison Hamilton
Former President Donald Trump questioned Vice President Kamala Harris’s racial identity, suggesting she recently became “Black” this week at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) Convention in Chicago.
Trump sat down for an intense 35-minute Q&A session at NABJ, which left many members angry, disappointed, and frustrated with his appearance and remarks, particularly those directed toward Harris.
“She became a Black person,” Trump said Wednesday, making the false claim that Harris only emphasized her Black heritage recently for political gain. “I didn’t know she was Black until several years ago when she happened to turn Black, and now she wants to be known as Black.”
Natasha Alford, a Black journalist and author of “American Negra: A Memoir,” took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to defend Harris, stating that Harris is indeed a Black woman and identifies as such.
“I think that many people don’t know the difference between race, ethnicity, and nationality, so they are thinking that Kamala Harris is not a generational African American, meaning a descendant from channeled slaves in the U.S. That means she’s not Black,” Alford said after moderating a panel at NABJ on misinformation Thursday morning.
Alford moderated a panel at the NABJ convention called “Surviving in a World of Misinformation, Disinformation and Artificial Intelligence.” Alford spoke alongside other journalists: Ed Gordon from BET News, Taurean Small from CBS News, Femi Redwood from Epicenter NYC, and Nikole Killion from CBS News. During this panel, they discussed the importance of fact-checking, spreading misinformation, and identifying AI-generated content online.
“You have to be committed to the truth, and you have to know your facts,” Alford said, urging her fellow journalists not to repeat Trump’s accusations and instead call him out on his statements.
Alford, like many other NABJ members online, was critical of NABJ inviting Trump to this year’s convention, believing his presence would allow the spread of misinformation and amplify messages targeted toward the Black community.
Trump’s false claims on Harris’s identity prompted many on X to call out the former president’s remarks.
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