I am confused. The media frequently describes Harris as African American. Yet her Wikipedia bio says her mother was born in India and her father born in Jamaica; both highly successful professionals who immigrated to California in the early ‘70s. I have not heard Harris claim African American heritage directly, but she hasn’t denied it either. The US Senate web page lists her as one of 3 serving African American senators. I cannot find a basis in her heritage for that determination. I’m not looking to be judgmental one way or another. I’m just looking for clarity.

I thought my initial post was pretty straight forward: why is Kamala Harris's ancestry so ambiguous? Especially in this age of identity politics, accuracy about heritage should not be all that hard to pin down. Her published biographies suggest her lineage to be California-born to a mother who emigrated from India and a father who emigrated from Jamaica. That's plain and simple to me. My friend commenting above suggests a claim of African American ancestry can be made by virtue of "American" being anyone born in the western hemisphere, and the "African" relating to "most" Jamaicans being brought over from Africa. Well, I don't buy that argument; I don't believe a guy in Peru considers himself American rather than Peruvian just because he lives in the western hemisphere. And I am sure there were indigenous people in Jamaica subjugated into slavery by the British and Dutch who were not brought from Africa.
I remain curious about the motives behind multiple media outlets that attribute African American ancestry to a candidate who has not professed as much herself, yet has not corrected them either.

I am confused. The media frequently describes Harris as African American. Yet her Wikipedia bio says her mother was born in India and her father born in Jamaica; both highly successful professionals who immigrated to California in the early ‘70s. I have not heard Harris claim African American heritage directly, but she hasn’t denied it either. The US Senate web page lists her as one of 3 serving African American senators. I cannot find a basis in her heritage for that determination. I’m not looking to be judgmental one way or another. I’m just looking for clarity.

See, I'm not on this site enough to know if it's frequented by trolls or bots or what. But nowhere in my post is it suggested this topic means much to me at all. I don't care if Harris is Martian. I do however take notice when the media says she's Martian and Harris remains mum on the subject. So in an effort to ascertain fact from fiction I make reasonable inquiry, and posters here want to ascribe some nefarious motives to my question. I wish people would simply share my curiosity. Instead you get comments that Trump lies too. People get sidetracked so easily that thoughtful discourse seems a thing of the past.