Joe Biden is now
officially the Democratic nominee.
But the convention is only half over.
Because, tonight, the big speakers were Barack Obama
and Kamala Harris,
the first-ever Black woman to be nominated for VP.
Although, according to conservative media,
she might not be Black enough.
NEWSWOMAN: Some have challenged her racial identity
and criticized her for identifying as black
when her parents are Jamaican and Indian.
We talk about "African American."
Her father is from Jamaica.
He isn't from Africa. He's from Jamaica.
So she's not really an American black.
Kamala Harris is not an African American.
If you dare raise that, you're attacked,
but the truth is she's not.
She's not African American.
She doesn't have slave blood.
She's not down for the struggle.
She's constantly talking how she went
to an historically black college.
She is adopting Oakland as her hometown
even though she grew up
from the age of seven to the age of 18 in Canada.
Kamala Harris descended from the largest slave owner...
slave owner in Jamaica.
Kamala Harris seems to be descended,
um, less from the legacy of, let's say, Frederick Douglass
than she is from the legacy of the plantation itself.
Wow. That is fascinating. And I know a lot of people
haven't heard that before, Dinesh.
Okay, uh, first of all,
being partly descended from a slave owner
is one of the blackest things that can happen to you.
In fact, you know who was also the descendant of a slave owner?
Frederick Douglass.
Yeah. So the guy you just tried to use
as an example of someone who is super black
is also, by your metric, not black enough.
Look, man, you can dissect Kamala Harris's heritage
however you want.
But to say she's not black?
Ask yourself this question. Is she black enough
to get kicked out of a restaurant
back in the day in the jim crow South?
Huh? Would she have been black enough to get redlined?
Is she black enough to be kept out
of a whites-only school as a little girl?
Then she's black. People want to be like,
"Oh, you're not black. You're not black."
There's a little, simple test here.
You know how you know you're black?
If you're dating a white person
and before you meet their parents for the first time,
they start a sentence with,
"Hey, listen, so, before we head inside..."
you're black.
And what's especially ironic about these people
trying to exclude Kamala from blackness
is that it's the reverse
of what white America did for centuries:
defining as many people as black as possible
whether they wanted it or not.
Color and who qualifies as black,
who qualifies as white has historically been policed
not by those who were the targets of oppression
but by those who set up the system of oppression.
In America, blackness was defined by that auction block.
You were black if you could be put on that auction block
and sold as property.
Following the abolition of slavery,
some Americans feared a rise in interracial relationships.
So states began passing laws to make sure that any child
with even one drop of Negro blood
would be classified as Negro
and denied the rights of white people.
This became known as the one-drop rule.
The one-drop rule was an attempt to save
the so-called purity of the white race.
NEWSWOMAN: By 1925, nearly every state
had a form of the one-drop rule on their books.
NEWSWOMAN 2: All you need is one person
five generations back who is black,
and that is enough to make you black.
Seriously? One black person in your family
has the power to make you black,
but all the white people in your family can't make you white?
If anything, I feel like this was also racist to white people.
I mean, imagine that.
They were basically saying ten white sperm
is not as powerful as one black sperm?
That is an insult to white sperm,
and I'm offended on behalf
of all my white brothers and sisters.
Basically, these people were so afraid of black people
that if you had so much as one drop of black blood,
they wanted nothing to do with you.
The same way if you find one tiny bug in your salad,
then the whole thing is ruined.
You either have to throw it away or give it to Stephen Miller.
And here's the thing.
This definition of blackness was never meant
to accurately portray the black experience
or many shades of blackness itself.
It was made with the singular intention
of finding the most efficient way
to exclude as many people as possible from whiteness.
So, yes, it is disgusting that these people
are now trying to disqualify Kamala Harris from being black.
But I will say this, Kamala. Don't worry.
This might also be a rite of passage
on the road to greatness, because, you see, it turns out
there's another black person who also wasn't black enough.
NEWSWOMAN: Rupert Murdoch suggested
President Obama isn't a real black president.
He hasn't actually had the African American experience.
In fact, he's not descended from slaves
on either side of his family.
This guy grows up in Hawaii with a Kansas mother.
His life is different.
Uh, he doesn't suffer in many of the ways
that blacks growing up in this country have suffered.
He is not the descendant of blacks
who suffered these jim crow laws,
who suffered through slavery.
He is not the son, the grandson, the great-grandson
of American blacks who went through
-the American experience. -NEWSMAN: Slavery.
Okay, wait, wait, wait. Hold on, hold on, hold on.
So, these people agree that the American black experience
is about struggle, suffering and oppression.
But when black people are protesting that oppression
in the streets, suddenly they're like,
"Why are you guys protesting?
"You people got your Marvel movie.
"You guys remember 'Wakanda forever'?
Uh, I don't know why you guys are complaining."
And that's one of the things I've always found
particularly interesting.
Your blackness as a person is never questioned in failure,
but in success, it gets put under the microscope.
Like, when a black person steals something
or when they sell crack
or when they shoot another black person,
I've never heard anybody on Fox News going,
"Hold on, hold on, hold on.
"This might not be black-on-black crime.
"Maybe it's half-Indian-on-black crime.
"Or maybe
his-great-grandfather-was-a- white-man-crime on crime."
But as soon as blackness is being considered
for excellence and perfection,
what has often been considered the domain of whiteness,
that's when white people start questioning
someone's black credentials.
I mean, look at Obama.
He spent his entire life as a black man.
Even had the 'fro.
But as soon as there was a chance
that he was gonna become the first black president,
all of a sudden, it was,
"Well, he's not, like, black, black.
"I mean, if anything,
"he was more shaped by his white mother from Kansas.
"So, if anything, America is getting
its first tan president."
But then a funny thing happened.
Once Obama got into the White House
and conservatives didn't like his policies,
he magically transformed into that black-ass homeboy
who's destroying the country.
Didn't hear a lot about his white mom in Kansas then.
So, I guess that's a silver lining for you, Kamala.
Fox News may be questioning your blackness now,
but best believe the second you step foot
into that White House with Joe Biden
and you make a few decisions they don't like,
trust me, you'll be black as can be.