As Donald Trump pivots his focus to Vice President Kamala Harris, one point of attack toward his new 2024 opponent is an old ploy to mispronounce her name.
Trump thinks mispronouncing Kamala Harris’ name is a good attack route.
I’ll admit to mispronouncing her name on occasion myself, but mostly because I associate it with two other figures who did/do pronounce it Ka-MAH-luh. I have to make an effort to get it right for her. But I am making that effort. And I have little doubt that these assholes are not.
I’m kind of afraid that I’ll mispronounce it in mixed company and make someone who doesn’t know me well think I’m one of those weird Republicans or something.
I actually said it wrong in that way the other day even though I usually get it right without having to think about it too much. It happens. Once we start hearing it all the time it’ll be easy, but in the meantime it may help to think of it as being “Kamla” which comes out sounding just the same.
I have a friend I’ve had since high school with that name and with that spelling who pronounced it a different way (closer to ‘camera’), so I go there for a second sometimes without realizing it, but correct myself quickly enough.
You’re right of course it’s racism, he knows his audience. But his schoolyard bully tactics always make fun of the unfamiliar, perhaps you mean Anglo sounding?
Because I’m pretty sure he would make fun of his own family name (Drumpf) if it belonged to an opponent. And I can’t imagine it would be any better if they were named Nieminen (Finish) or Svobodova (Czech) or Nikolakopoulos (Greek) etc. Same with first names.
I guess “Hillary Clinton” and “Joe Biden” are hard to mispronounce without making it sound even more obvious than he likes to be, so he took the opportunity.
This is just a dog-whistle for racism, right? Barely even a dog-whistle. Making fun of a name because it’s not european is pretty blatantly racist.
That’s exactly what it is. It’s saying, “white men like me know how to really pronounce your name and you don’t.”
I’ll admit to mispronouncing her name on occasion myself, but mostly because I associate it with two other figures who did/do pronounce it Ka-MAH-luh. I have to make an effort to get it right for her. But I am making that effort. And I have little doubt that these assholes are not.
I’m kind of afraid that I’ll mispronounce it in mixed company and make someone who doesn’t know me well think I’m one of those weird Republicans or something.
I actually said it wrong in that way the other day even though I usually get it right without having to think about it too much. It happens. Once we start hearing it all the time it’ll be easy, but in the meantime it may help to think of it as being “Kamla” which comes out sounding just the same.
I have a friend I’ve had since high school with that name and with that spelling who pronounced it a different way (closer to ‘camera’), so I go there for a second sometimes without realizing it, but correct myself quickly enough.
An honest mistake is an honest mistake you can always tell the difference
Seems like a regular whistle at this point.
You’re right of course it’s racism, he knows his audience. But his schoolyard bully tactics always make fun of the unfamiliar, perhaps you mean Anglo sounding?
Because I’m pretty sure he would make fun of his own family name (Drumpf) if it belonged to an opponent. And I can’t imagine it would be any better if they were named Nieminen (Finish) or Svobodova (Czech) or Nikolakopoulos (Greek) etc. Same with first names.
I guess “Hillary Clinton” and “Joe Biden” are hard to mispronounce without making it sound even more obvious than he likes to be, so he took the opportunity.
When Obama was running the right made a big point out of calling him Barack Hussein Obama.