At an event on Oct. 22 in Miami, former President Donald Trump referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as “lazy” and questioned her intelligence and stamina.
According to ABC News, the event was intended to court support from Latinx voters, but that did not stop the former president and convicted felon from launching into a series of anti-Black comments about Harris.
Trump called Vice President Harris, the first woman of color to lead a major political party ticket, “slow” and indicated that he believes she has a “low IQ.”
Later, at a rally in Greensboro, Trump repeated the claims, referring to Harris as “a stupid person” and asked the crowd, “Does she drink? Is she on drugs?”
Trump also insinuated that Harris is a DEI candidate, saying that Harris is running “because they (the Democratic Party) want to be politically correct.”
Although some Republicans have called for Trump to refrain from personal attacks, it is abundantly clear he has no intention of doing so.
According to Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung, Trump’s attacks are not based on either her race or gender, but “It’s simply because she has no respect for the American people and takes voters for granted.”
Per the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the characterization of Harris, who is both Black and of South Asian descent, as lazy, plays on historically demeaning tropes and stereotypes.
Those stereotypes, the museum said, “were used to help commodify Black bodies and justify the business of slavery.”
The NMAAHC continued, “Yet laziness, as well as characteristics of submissiveness, backwardness, lewdness, treachery, and dishonesty, historically became stereotypes assigned to African Americans.”
According to Rachel Noerdlinger, a Democratic communications strategist and a senior advisor to Win With Black Women, Trump’s (barely) coded language is an attempt to undermine Harris’ qualifications based on her race and gender.
“Trump is reviving the old trope that Black women are unqualified for jobs historically held by white men,” Noerdlinger told The Washington Post. “Not having a campaign event while you’re in the middle of also governing isn’t ‘lazy’ — making almost 300 trips to the golf course as president is.”
In August, The New Yorker surmised that his racist attacks are part of an attempt to get the focus off of him and onto his opponent.
As Susan B. Glasser wrote, “The Harris attacks represent a textbook example of his approach to politics, combining his belief in the strategic power of race-baiting to mobilize his base and his favorite tactic for disrupting a bad news cycle: changing the subject to something even more outrageous.”
Glasser continued, “Every minute spent debating Harris’s race—or his own folly in raising it—is a minute not spent on Trump’s own failings: on his advanced age and manifest unfitness for the Presidency; on his legal liabilities and criminal conviction; on his kooky Vice-Presidential nominee and his party’s extreme right-wing agenda.”
According to Vox, racism was a key driver of Trump’s win in 2016, and it is becoming clearer that he is trying to create the same outcome using those methods this time around.
According to a model created by Matthew Fowler, Vladimir Medencia, and Cathy Cohen, Trump won based on racial resentment, which they defined as “a moral feeling that Blacks violate such traditional American values as individualism and self-reliance.”
The outlet also traced Trump’s long history of racist controversy, starting with a 1973 Justice Department lawsuit that indicated that Trump and his Trump Management Corporation refused to rent to Black tenants. Trump claimed that the government was trying to make him rent to welfare recipients.
In 2016, Trump also claimed that Harris “doesn’t meet the requirements” to be Joe Biden’s running mate, an incident the outlet said was a continuation of the birther controversy he started during former President Barack Obama’s first term.
According to Vox, a separate list of incidents compiled while Trump was running for president in 2016 reveals a man who is, at his core, deeply racist.
“This list is not comprehensive, instead relying on some of the major examples since Trump announced his candidacy. But once again, there’s a pattern of racism and bigotry here that suggests Trump isn’t just misspeaking; it is who he is,” the outlet explained.
It continued, “So while Trump may deny his racism and bigotry, at some level, his supporters seem to get it. As much as his history of racism shows that he’s racist, perhaps who supported him and why is just as revealing — and it doesn’t paint a favorable picture for Trump.”
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